Corporate report

The Fifth Report on the Operation of the Honours System (HTML)

Published 25 May 2023

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Foreword

For centuries, our honours system has been a way of recognising people who make an extraordinary contribution to British life. Some have displayed physical and moral courage to help those around them; others have selflessly dedicated their time and energy to improving their communities.

As this report shows, we have made a number of important changes over the last three years to ensure the system continues to reflect the world around us. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a bespoke online nomination form to capture the incredible work carried out in response to the worst health crisis of our generation. We have also simplified the permanent public nomination process to make it more accessible, and launched a new purpose-built honours website to provide greater clarity on how the overall honours system works.

Looking ahead, the Prime Minister is determined to make sure our honours represent the length and breadth of the country. He has tasked us with “levelling up” the system so that it captures every corner of the UK - particularly regions that have too often been underrepresented. He has also set a key - and often overlooked - priority when rewarding public servants, to recognise those who have saved the taxpayer money. The Government is here to serve the British people; it is our duty to make sure we are delivering value for money on their behalf wherever we can.

At the same time, the Prime Minister wants future awards to be targeted at those who are helping tackle today’s biggest challenges. He has asked the honours system to prioritise those who provide high-quality healthcare and education; who tackle crime; who support families to contribute to society and help children achieve their potential; and to recognise our most inspiring entrepreneurs, innovators and philanthropists.

All of these people deserve recognition for the incredible contribution they make across every part of the UK and they will be our focus moving forward.

Rt Hon Oliver Dowden CBE MP

Deputy Prime Minister & Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

Summary of key developments

During the reporting period, the honours system has sought to continue to consolidate and improve its work to improve integrity and fairness in, and equality of access to, the honours system.

Key developments include:

• The development of a bespoke online nomination form between 2020-22 to enable the honours system to recognise the incredible work carried out in response to the issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in thousands of additional awards to people who provided exceptional service to, and care in, communities which needed the most support throughout this incredibly challenging period.
• The simplification of the permanent public nomination process to make it more intuitive and therefore accessible.
• A new, purpose-built honours website that provides greater clarity on the workings of the honours system.
• Further steps were taken to promote diversity and inclusion within the honours system to ensure that it accurately reflects the diverse society that we live in.
• The Honours Festival 2022 was held to encourage engagement with the honours system.
• Handling changes to the honours system arising from the death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to ensure that the system remains robust.
• Changes to the forfeiture of honours process.
• Reform of the appointment process to the honours committees to bring them into alignment with public appointments best practice.

Prime Minister’s strategic priorities

Each Prime Minister is asked to set the direction for the honours system as a whole. Rt Hon Theresa May MP’s priorities were in use for the New Year 2019 and Birthday 2019 honours rounds. Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP’s priorities were in use from the New Year 2020 to the New Year 2023 honours round. The priorities set by Prime Minister Johnson in May 2020 have been in use for most of the reporting period. In these, he stated that he would like to see the system especially recognise those:

• Innovators and entrepreneurs who create thriving businesses and deliver growth across the country and export to new markets;
• Individuals who are unleashing our potential in emerging sectors, striving to find new technologies, deliver a cleaner environment as well as improve global biodiversity;
• Who deliver excellence in culture and education;
• Charities and groups which deliver meaningful change locally in tackling crime, improving the local environment and delivering integration as well as individuals who support the aim of increasing the chances of female education across the globe;
• individuals who have put their own lives at risk to protect and defend the lives of others;
• Public servants and those in public life who have delivered an exceptional service to provide help and support to the people of the United Kingdom;
• Individuals who worked to support the Union of all four constituent nations of the United Kingdom.

Mr Johnson also reaffirmed that honours should be awarded ‘merit first’ and not to those who are just doing their job. Honours are not to reward longevity in a role, seniority or age. He wished to see representation from the length and breadth of the UK, reflecting the extraordinary contributions made across every part of this country, with a real focus in recognising parts of the country often overlooked.

Diversity and Inclusion

We have taken a number of steps over the past few years to increase both the number and diversity of nominations received, reflecting the broader focus on reform within the system. The actions taken by the have helped demonstrate the independence of the system while tackling the remaining perceptions about a closed system.

We have also shifted the focus of our publicity of honours lists to frontline and community recipients, reflecting that around 70% of recipients on each list are recognised for community, voluntary and charitable service.

We have worked closely with partner organisations across the public sector and beyond to focus on ensuring that all sectors and parts of UK life have the opportunity to make nominations. This has led to real improvements in diversity:

• Building on gains in the previous reporting period, continued equality of half of all honours awarded to women, with a steadily improving percentage of higher honours (CBE and above) awarded to women.
  • For the last list of the reporting period, New Year 2023, 45.1% of higher awards went to women.
• During the reporting period, over 10% of awards have consistently gone to recipients from ethnic minority backgrounds.
  • The longer term data (published under Ethnicity Facts and Figures on gov.uk) shows that since 2014, the percentage of honours recipients from ethnic minorities (not including White minorities) went up from around 6% to over 15%.
  • There remain challenges consistently to increase the number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds who are considered for the higher level awards - sample sizes at those levels are small and this makes it difficult to make reliable generalisations about changes over time.
  • At New Year 2023, 16.4% of recipients were from ethnic minority backgrounds, with 12.4% at the senior levels.
• Information about the socio-economic background of recipients has been collected since New Year 2020.
  • At New Year 2023, 29.2% of recipients considered themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background.
• Regional diversity remains challenging. Statistical analysis shows that some parts of the UK are consistently better represented in honours lists than others.
  • In particular, Northern Ireland and London tend to have a greater number of recipients than would be expected from their share of the population.
  • Conversely, the north east and north west of England, east of England and East Midlands are all less well represented relative to their population sizes.
• More data is needed to understand the picture in respect of nominees and recipients with disabilities, particularly in respect of how individuals may self-identify.

The Secretariat does nevertheless acknowledge that more work is needed, particularly in improving regional representation in the honours lists.

Diversity of Public Nominations

The Honours and Appointments Secretariat works very closely with honours teams across the Civil Service and devolved administrations, third-party advocates and strategic partners to raise public awareness of the honours system and increase the number, quality and diversity of the nominations submitted. Through engaging with these third parties at a working level, the Secretariat has been able to ensure honours communications have been actively targeted towards organisations with direct links to underrepresented groups, encouraging their participation in the honours system. These targeted initiatives and the advocacy of our stakeholders have also worked to improve the transparency and perception of the honours system among the public.

Honours panel events, which are open to the public and based across the UK, showcased a variety of special honours recipients, give a brief introduction to the honours system and a step by step walkthrough on how to write and submit an honours nomination. Sector-specific sessions aimed to target additional and a broader range of nominations. There is a focus in all these sessions on encouraging people to consider nominating people from underrepresented groups, including:

• those from underrepresented regions of the UK;
• people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds at all levels, but specifically at the higher award levels;
• Women at all levels, but specifically at the higher levels;
• People who identify as having a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

Ahead of the publication of each honours list, a communications campaign is launched. The campaign is generally made up of 3 strands of comms activities:

• National media - highlighting recipients around a specific theme, or those whose work is relating to topical issues, with a particular focus on those giving community-based service.
• Regional media - highlighting the breadth of contributions from recipients across the country, particularly at MBE and BEM level and by region. The main purpose of this is to highlight the incredible achievements of “ordinary” people rather than those who are already well-known or public figures.
• Social media - to showcase the most creative, innovative or heartwarming stories from each honours list. These case studies are also later added to the honours website.

Accessibility

The Secretariat worked to increase the number and quality of nominations from people with disabilities and to more generally improve the engagement of people with disabilities in the honours system.

We were able to do so by partnering with the Cabinet Office Disability Unit on a number of successful campaigns where targeted outreach was carried out to ensure a large number of nominations were made for / by people with disabilities.

• We held a British Sign Language-translated honours session.
• We released “easy read” versions of the honours nomination form^{[footnote 1]} and guidance^{[footnote 2]} for those with English as a second language or for people with learning needs.
• We produced honours guidance in a range of languages commonly-spoken in the UK to assist people from different communities to engage with the honours system.

Diversity Committee

The Honours Diversity Committee met for the first time in September 2020. The Committee assisted in delivering an honours system which is representative of UK society. It’s purpose is to:

• ensure that the honours system is properly reflective of UK society;
• support targeted regional and sectoral outreach and publicity of the honours system;
• identify policy improvements or interventions regarding improving diversity in the honours system and make recommendations to the HD Committee;
• recommend courses of action to the independent honours committees, honours secretaries and the Honours and Appointments Secretariat to improve diversity;
• support the work of the independent committees by ensuring that they are sighted on best practice in this area, remain mindful of and committed to diversity targets, and undertake discussions and the evaluation of candidates in an open and even handed way;
• support pipeline-building activities across all committees and all honours levels.

The Diversity Committee is led by an independent chair, with support provided by the Secretariat. A member of each of the independent honours committees was appointed to the Diversity Committee based on their sector-specific expertise, experience, interest and commitment. The independence chair during the reporting period was Baroness (Louise) Casey DBE.

Outreach work was paused during some of the latter part of the reporting period because of changes in the independent committee membership and reduced resourcing in the Honours and Appointments Secretariat.

COVID Nominations

The COVID-19 nomination form and process was introduced in May 2020 and ran for two years, ending with the closure of the form in May 2022. The purpose of the form was to provide a more streamlined consideration process and accessible route for the public to nominate those in society who had responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with the existing public nomination form, it required substantially less information in order to be accepted and processed. Significantly, the form did not require letters of support to be submitted along with it, as is normally required. However, the same degree of validation of nomination information was carried out to ensure the required high standard of assurance.

Over the official life of the process, 6,789 nominations related to COVID-19 were made. This included 5,789 nominations (83.4%) made on the dedicated COVID-19 form and exactly 1000 (16.6%) were made via the existing online form and nomination form. 39.8% of nominations received were referred to DHSC, while 29.4% were run centrally by the Public Nominations team within the Secretariat. The effectiveness of this updated form was a key factor in the revising of the standard nomination form.

In May 2020, HM The Queen agreed to defer the publication of the Birthday Honours List 2020 until the autumn, which enabled the Secretariat and its partner organisations to put in place arrangements to identify additional nominees for COVID-19 service to be included in the list. This was organised to ensure as great a consistency with usual honours processes as possible, to provide the integrity of the honours system. This was an extraordinary achievement given the high volume of nominations and the quick turnaround - the list was published on 10 October 2020 - to honour those who worked so hard during the early stages of the pandemic.

Prime Ministerial Honours

The Prime Minister is able to make direct recommendations to the Sovereign outside the independent honours committee process and the two regular honours lists. These most commonly occur on the occasion of the Prime Minister’s resignation or with the dissolution of Parliament for a General Election. Other ad hoc honours may also be recommended.

A resignation list occurs when a Prime Minister stands down and typically covers both honours and peerages, which are (uniquely) announced in parallel. Such lists provide the Prime Minister with the opportunity to recognise personal service to them during their administration.

A dissolution list consists of peerages to MPs who have left Parliament at a General Election (either through standing down or losing their seat) or who left Parliament earlier in the same session. Lists are primarily peerages but may include a small number of honours.

During the reporting period, the following Prime Ministerial honours were awarded:

Rt Hon Theresa May MP’s administration

Resignation list - 41 honours

CH: 1

D/K: 11

CB/CBE: 10

OBE: 13

MBE: 4

BEM: 2

Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP’s administration

Dissolution list (General Election 2019; published in 2020) - 2 honours

D/K: 2

Political list (October 2022) - 3 honours

D/K: 3

Ad hoc honours - 5

D/K:5

Rt Hon Liz Truss MP’s administration (September-October 2022)

None

Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP’s administration (October 2022 onwards)

None

Transparency

Public Nominations

We launched the online nomination form for public use in 2017. It was introduced to provide easy access to the honours system, in a bid to attract a higher number of public honours nominations. It would also allow users to create an account, which would let the nominator have time to build and submit their nomination but also return to track the nomination. There was some hope that an account would mean users returned to submit further nominations.

Following the success of the streamlined COVID-19 nomination form, it was determined that online public nomination form should be adapted, using the COVID-19 form as a basis and drawing on the findings of research. This sought to both increase public nominations while still generating high quality citations.

Honours Website

In June 2021, we launched a new honours website^{[footnote 3]}, bringing together all the information about the system from nomination to investiture outside the confines of Gov.uk. This reflected research that suggested that a large proportion of the public were unaware that they were able to submit an honours nomination. The website is valuable in making the system more accessible, allowing inspirational stories from around the UK to be highlighted and providing information about where the gaps are to encourage nominations, recognising that they are the most powerful means of promoting a positive image of the system and its human impact. The website is also used to publish the diversity statistics for each list.

Honours Week

In June 2022 an Honours Festival was held, with thirteen sessions across three days. The feedback was extremely positive, and there is hope to repeat the exercise again in the future. The event was designed to increase the publicity around the honours system and to provide content for stakeholders to engage interest.

Integrity and Governance

The Death of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Following the death of Her late Majesty The Queen in September 2022, it was important to clarify the impact this had on the operation of the honours system.

Honours are bestowed by the Sovereign of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in their role as ‘fount of honour’. This is a continuing entity. From the moment of The Queen’s death, Her successor HM King Charles III was automatically imbued with authority to oversee and direct the honours system. .

Honours and medals approved by The late Queen continue to bear Her name, effigy and cipher. Recipients of medals during Her reign continue to hold the post-nominal letters

Medals recipients approved by The King for the New Year Honours List 2023 will bear his effigy and cipher. Those awarded at the New Year were The King’s Ambulance Service Medal; The King’s Fire Service Medal; The King’s Police Medal; and The King’s Volunteer Reserve Medal.

From the point of His accession, any new medals approved by the sovereign will bear His name, effigy and cipher as appropriate.

The Honours and Appointments Secretariat has started work to ensure that all Royal Warrants reflect the change in Sovereign and that updates are made to medals to depict The King’s effigy.

Committee Recruitment

The process for independent committee recruitment changed during the reporting period. To bring honours recruitment more in line with regulated public appointments, the Prime Minister of the day is now responsible for making independent committee appointments, with advice from a full recruitment panel (including an independent member) and from the Head of the Civil Service. This change was agreed by the HD Committee.

Honours data breach

On Friday 27 December 2019 at 22:30, the Cabinet Office published the New Year Honours List 2020 on GOV.UK. As part of this publication, a version of the honours list was published online which contained address details of the 1,097 recipients. This was done as the result of human error. The document was accessible for approximately 40 minutes, and was available to those who had already accessed the information for a further 150 minutes via the original web link. The Cabinet Office accepted responsibility for the breach and apologised to all those affected.

A full review was undertaken into the incident and an independent review by Adrian Joseph OBE was commissioned to look at data handling culture and processes across the department as a whole. Mr Joseph reported in 2020 and a programme to improve data management was undertaken.

The Cabinet Office cooperated entirely with the investigation by the Information Commissioner. In response to failings identified by the Commissioner, a financial penalty of £50,000 was imposed in 2022.

Quinquennial Review of Honours allocations

Every five years, a review is carried out of how honours are distributed across the different categories of activity in UK life. This is guided both by priorities set by the Prime Minister and also changes to the population and sizes of workforces in each sector of the economy. During the reporting period, the final recommendations of the previous review (2017) were enacted while the latest review (2022) set out recommendations for the period from the Birthday honours round 2023 to the Birthday honours round 2028 (inclusive).

The review is primarily confined to reviewing the allocation of honours between sectors to ensure that they are fairly distributed across society: as opposed to wholesale reform. The focus is honours and does not not typically encompass medals or the wider operation of the honours system. Within this review, the following recommendations were made:

• The number of honours should stay the same, despite the increasing population. However, within the numbers, awards are to be reallocated from committees which consistently underspend their allocations, and given to committees which are priority areas which consistently overuse allocations.
• The Health Committee should be renamed the Health and Social Care Committee, and the Science and Technology Committee should be renamed the Science, Technology and Research Committee.
• More focus should be placed on embedding the Prime Minister’s strategic priorities into the pipelining process, ensuring nominees are being assessed against these throughout the process.
• A review to take place across the honours system to ensure that due diligence and probity checks are consistent across all lists and additionally to ensure that there is a consistency of approach on how the criteria are applied across all three lists.
• A review of the use of the Companion of Honour and the Grand Cross awards to clarify the current criteria, while also considering how frequently it is awarded.

The recommendations made in this review form part of the Secretariat’s ongoing work programme over the next quinquennium, with several of them being rolled out as early as BD23.

Forfeiture of Honours

In 2021, following recommendations made by the Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), new policies were instigated in relation to the forfeiture of honours.

The number of ‘hard triggers’ for automatic consideration of forfeiture was increased from two to four. Anybody convicted of a sexual offence will now be automatically considered for forfeiture regardless of the sentence they receive. Additionally, anybody found to have committed such an offence following a ‘trial of the facts’ will also be considered automatically. Any case meeting one of the criteria below fall into this category:

• Has been found guilty by the courts of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of more than three months
• Has been censured or struck off by the relevant regulatory authority or professional body, for actions or failures to act, especially which are directly relevant to the granting of the honour
• Has been found guilty by the courts of a criminal offence covered by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (England and Wales), Sexual Offences Order 2008 (Northern Ireland) or Sexual Offences Act 2009 (Scotland);
• Has been found to have committed a sexual act which is listed in the Acts above following a ‘trial of the facts’.

The Committee is not limited to cases of the type listed, and can consider any case where the actions (or inactions) of the recipient may be deemed to bring the honours system into disrepute.

Additionally, the Forfeiture Committee is now able to deal with cases relating to recipients who are no longer living. The Order of the Empire is a living honour, which falls away on the death of the recipient. It is therefore not possible to revoke an honour that was given to the deceased. However, the Committee can now make a formal statement where it becomes aware that an individual was accused of serious criminal acts during their lifetime. This confirms that action would have been taken were the person convicted in their lifetime.

In 2022, the process by which the Committee membership is selected was altered so that if fulfils the criteria below:

• A minimum of three Forfeiture Committee members should be appointed from the pool of ten current independent honours committee chairs for a suggested maximum term length of three years, rather than a fixed term. Independent members should outnumber permanent members, therefore the Committee will not be deemed to be quorate without three independent members attending.
• Appointment terms will be for a maximum of three years, or until the expiry of an individuals’ term as independent honours committee chair, should their remaining term as committee chair be less than three years.
• Members are eligible for reappointment to the Forfeiture Committee for a maximum of a second three year term, should they be reappointed as an independent chair. This mirrors provisions on other independent committees to ensure a flow of fresh expertise into the honours system.
• Existing members will be able to remain on the Committee after their time as honours committee chair expires, until a replacement is appointed, up to a maximum time of six months after the expiration of their appointment. Use of this facility would require the approval of the Prime Minister. Should this approval not be forthcoming, an individual’s term on the Forfeiture Committee would cease as soon as they no longer serve as an honours committee chair.

Annex 1 - Summary of Honours Process

A diagram of the summary of the honours process.

Annex 2 - Criteria for Honours

The Honours Committees have adopted the following broad guidelines as to the criteria for the levels of award:-

• Companion of Honour - A pre-eminent and sustained contribution in the arts, science, medicine or government.
• Dame/Knight - A pre-eminent contribution in any field of activity, usually, but not exclusively at national level, or in a capacity which will be recognised by peer groups as inspirational and significant nationally, and which demonstrates sustained commitment.
• CBE - A prominent national role of a lesser degree, or a conspicuous leading role in regional affairs through achievement or service to the community or a highly distinguished, innovative contribution in his or her area of activity.
• OBE - A distinguished regional or county-wide role in any field, through achievement or service to the community including notable practitioners known nationally.
• MBE - Achievement or service in and to the community which is outstanding in its field and has delivered sustained and real impact which stands out as an example to others.
• BEM - Achievement or contribution of a very “hands-on” service to the community in a local geographical area. This might take the form of sustained commitment in support of very local charitable and/or voluntary activity; or innovative work that has delivered real impact but that is relatively short (three to four years) in duration.

Annex 3 - Current committee membership (March 2019)

Those appointed in this reporting period are marked with *

Arts & Media

• John Booth*
• Sir Peter Bazalgette (chair)
• Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE
• Kanya King CBE
• Caroline Michel
• Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE
• Alice Rawsthorn OBE
• Samir Shah CBE*
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
• Permanent Secretary, Scottish Government

Community and Voluntary Service

• Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE (chair) (chair elect from Birthday 2023, The Rt Hon Nick Hurd
• Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski
• Harris Bokhari OBE
• Carly Jones MBE
• Ros Kerslake CBE
• Adeeba Malik CBE
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Permanent Secretary, Welsh Government

Economy

• Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia DBE CVO FRSE (chair)*
• Sir Douglas Flint CBE
• Dame Vivian Hunt DBE
• Dr Gerard Lyons*
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
• Permanent Secretary, Scottish Government

Education

• Sir Hamid Patel CBE (chair)*
• Professor Sir David Eastwood DL
• Dame Sally Coates DBE*
• Sally Dicketts CBE*
• Sir Martyn Oliver*
• Dame Alison Peacock DBE DL
• Professor Steven West CBE DL
• Head of Northern Ireland Civil Service
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Education

Health and Social Care

• Professor Dame Jane Dacre* DBE (chair)
• Sir David Behan CBE
• Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz
• Dr Henrietta Hughes OBE*
• The Baroness Harding of Winscombe
• Professor Karen Middleton CBE
• Professor Iqbal Singh CBE
• Chief Medical Officer (England)
• Second Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Care
• Permanent Secretary, Welsh Government

Parliamentary and Political Service

• The Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury CBE
• Dr Sue Griffiths
• The Rt Hon The Lord Haselhurst
• Dame Denise Platt
• Sir Paul Silk KCB
• Government Chief Whip
• Opposition Chief Whip

Public Service

• Dame Barbara Monroe DBE (chair)
• Emir Feisal JP
• Alistair Finlay OBE
• Maggy Pigott CBE
• Riaz Ravat BEM DL
• The Venerable Canon David Stanton
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Education
• Permanent Secretary, Home Office
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
• Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice
• Permanent Secretary, Welsh Government

Science, Technology and Research

• Stephen Kelly (chair) *
• Professor Sir Keith Burnett
• Naomi Climer CBE FREng
• Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser DBE
• Professor Andrew Scott
• Professor Lionel Tarassenko CBE FREng*
• Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government
• Chief Scientific Adviser, BEIS
• Chief Scientific Adviser, Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs

Sport

• The Rt Hon Sir Hugh Robertson KCMG DL (chair)
• Pippa Britton
• Tom Clarke
• Donna Fraser OBE
• Liz Nicholl CBE
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
• Head of Northern Ireland Civil Service

State

• Mark Addison CB (chair)
• Isabel Doverty MA, M.Sc, MCIPD
• Sir David Hempleman-Adams
• Jenny Rowe CB
• Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE
• Permanent Secretary, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Permanent Secretary, Department of Health and Social Care

Main Honours Committee

• Sir Chris Wormald KCB (chair)
• Chair, Arts and Media Honours Committee
• Chair, CVS Honours Committee
• Chair, Economy Honours Committee
• Chair, Education Honours Committee
• Chair, Health Honours Committee
• Chair, PPS Honours Committee
• Chair, Public Service Honours Committee
• Chair, Science and Technology Honours Committee
• Chair, Sport Honours Committee
• Chair, State Honours Committee
• Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service
• Permanent Under Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• Chief of the Defence Staff

Annex 4 - Full diversity statistics

Honours recipients BD2019-NY2023: by Black and minority ethnic communities

Category	DBE/Kt	CBE	OBE	MBE	BEM	TOTAL	% OF LIST
BD19	1	7	30	40	18	96	10
NY20	5	11	22	53	24	115	9.1
BD20	1	14	31	91	48	185	13
NY21	1	10	30	65	42	148	14.2
BD21	1	16	33	67	41	158	15
NY22	6	11	36	77	38	168	15.1
BD22	3	7	34	42	30	116	13.3
NY23	8	15	38	79	28	168	16.4

Honours recipients BD2019 - NY2023: by gender

BD2019

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	2	5	3	11	11	14	24	15	15	18	55	63
CVS	1	0	3	3	12	14	21	50	60	60	97	127
Economy	2	4	9	19	17	19	28	32	3	4	59	78
Education	0	3	4	5	16	6	26	16	10	4	56	34
EU Exit	0	0	3	1	7	6	4	1	0	0	14	8
Health	1	1	3	7	14	4	24	14	19	5	61	31
PPS	1	3	0	5	2	4	3	6	1	1	7	19
Public Service	1	3	0	6	10	13	39	28	19	28	69	78
S&T	0	2	4	5	5	3	6	2	1	0	16	12
Sport	0	0	0	2	5	5	8	16	12	20	25	43
State	0	2	12	17	14	15	16	18	5	6	47	58
Total	8	23	41	71	113	103	199	198	145	146	506	551

NY2020

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	3	5	7	7	10	9	13	25	21	11	54	57
CVS	2	8	13	20	33	49	33	49	54	65	107	137
Economy	3	4	9	16	18	22	26	29	1	6	57	77
Education	1	5	2	3	12	13	29	10	10	6	54	32
EU Exit	0	0	9	1	5	1	0	0	0	0	14	2
Health	3	1	2	7	11	9	35	16	15	4	66	37
PPS	1	3	2	3	3	2	5	3	0	0	11	11
Public Service	0	1	4	3	5	17	26	29	19	55	54	105
S&T	2	5	5	5	6	1	5	4	0	0	18	15
Sport	1	1	0	2	4	6	11	13	10	24	26	46
State	2	2	9	13	14	27	28	8	6	8	62	58
Total	18	35	62	80	111	156	211	356	136	179	523	577

BD2020

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	5	5	7	5	10	9	20	29	7	15	49	63
CVS	0	1	7	3	17	23	67	68	132	103	223	198
Economy	2	3	8	14	15	24	35	51	25	23	85	115
Education	0	1	7	2	16	15	35	18	12	5	70	42
EU Exit	0	0	6	2	4	1	1	0	0	0	11	3
Health	3	1	3	5	17	15	47	29	47	25	117	75
PPS	0	2	1	1	5	2	2	6	1	0	9	11
Public Service	0	1	3	5	14	9	35	32	36	64	88	111
S&T	2	2	3	4	10	11	4	9	0	0	19	26
Sport	0	1	1	2	0	6	15	19	10	21	26	49
State	1	1	4	13	18	20	16	23	5	5	44	62
Total	13	18	50	56	126	135	267	284	275	241	741	755

NY2021

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	3	4	4	8	5	11	14	15	9	11	35	49
CVS	1	2	2	3	23	28	63	77	85	90	174	193
Economy	2	3	5	11	17	25	15	28	17	20	56	79
Education	0	2	4	3	23	9	32	14	13	7	72	35
Health	3	1	3	3	10	12	49	36	35	15	98	69
PPS	1	2	2	3	1	7	2	6	1	1	7	19
Public Service	0	1	3	4	9	13	29	29	28	42	69	89
S&T	3	1	3	4	4	3	4	3	1	0	15	11
Sport	0	0	1	1	2	6	7	21	10	13	20	41
State	1	0	9	10	21	21	21	18	5	3	57	52
Total	14	16	36	50	115	135	236	247	204	202	603	637

BD2021

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	4	1	4	7	11	11	16	14	10	12	45	45
CVS	2	2	5	3	16	15	52	68	78	72	153	160
Economy	2	4	5	8	10	16	28	27	5	11	50	66
Education	1	2	3	4	13	10	30	21	15	4	62	41
Health	1	2	3	7	10	9	40	24	31	8	85	50
PPS	3	2	1	1	2	3	5	4	1	0	11	11
Public Service	0	0	3	4	3	15	24	16	25	20	55	55
S&T	2	5	4	8	9	13	5	6	0	1	17	26
Sport	0	0	1	1	2	7	10	12	9	10	22	30
State	2	0	11	25	14	17	33	22	4	7	64	71
Total	17	18	40	68	90	116	243	234	178	145	567	562

NY2022

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	2	4	5	8	8	13	21	17	8	10	44	52
CVS	1	1	4	2	16	21	34	48	125	79	180	151
Economy	1	5	8	17	13	26	33	37	9	1	64	86
Education	1	0	3	6	14	15	37	10	12	5	67	36
Health	4	2	1	11	8	11	23	24	10	5	46	53
PPS	1	5	1	1	3	3	3	4	1	1	9	14
Public Service	1	3	4	5	8	15	27	39	37	32	77	94
S&T	1	3	4	5	7	8	7	7	1	0	20	23
Sport	0	0	0	1	1	3	9	21	6	11	16	36
Sport - Olympic and Paralympic	1	1	0	4	8	8	21	43	0	0	30	56
State	0	5	13	11	22	22	21	22	4	5	60	65
Total	13	29	43	71	108	145	236	262	213	149	613	666

BD2022

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	1	6	7	5	7	11	30	19	14	16	59	57
CVS	1	0	4	3	14	21	51	55	80	68	150	147
Economy	2	5	4	11	18	18	17	24	4	6	45	64
Education	2	3	2	7	13	13	26	11	9	5	52	39
Health	1	3	5	5	16	12	27	21	23	6	72	47
PPS	0	2	1	2	1	5	6	3	0	1	11	13
Public Service	1	1	2	4	13	16	42	25	21	19	79	65
S&T	3	4	4	4	6	8	6	7	0	2	20	24
Sport	0	0	0	0	4	8	13	20	9	12	26	40
State	1	1	11	11	24	18	29	20	5	4	70	54
Total	15	25	40	52	116	130	247	204	165	139	584	550

NY2023

Category	D/K+	D/K+	C Level	C Level	OBE	OBE	MBE	MBE	BEM	BEM	Totals	Totals
Gender	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M	F	M
Arts and Media	1	5	6	3	6	9	20	17	9	9	42	43
CVS	1	2	4	6	13	21	50	59	84	70	152	158
Economy	3	5	6	10	14	26	23	33	4	8	50	82
Education	3	2	5	5	13	20	32	14	12	8	65	49
Health	2	3	7	5	11	7	28	14	15	7	63	36
PPS	1	3	1	3	2	5	8	1	1	1	13	13
Public Service	0	1	2	4	10	9	27	31	23	21	62	66
S&T	3	2	4	4	5	8	6	4	0	1	18	19
Sport	1	0	0	3	4	6	16	10	6	15	27	34
State	0	1	14	11	19	21	17	21	6	5	56	59
Total	15	24	49	54	97	132	227	204	160	145	548	559

Honours recipients BD2019-NY2023: by level

List	D/K+	C-level	OBE	MBE	BEM
BD2019	32	122	216	397	291
NY2020	40	117	231	397	315
BD2020	31	106	261	561	537
NY2021	30	86	250	476	398
BD2021	35	108	206	457	323
NY2022	42	114	253	508	362
BD2022	40	92	246	452	304
NY2023	39	103	229	431	305
Totals	289	848	1892	3679	2835

Honours recipients BD2019 - NY2023: across the United Kingdom

NATION / REGION	NO. & % OF BD19 LIST	NO. & % OF NY20 LIST	NO. & % OF BD20 LIST	NO. & % OF NY21 LIST	NO. & % OF BD21 LIST	NO. & % OF NY22 LIST	NO. & % OF BD22 LIST	NO. & % OF NY23 LIST	% OF UK POPULATION
EAST	84 (7.9%)	84 (7.6%)	119 (8%)	112 (9.8%)	96 (8.5%)	110 (8.6%)	88 (7.8%)	101 (9.1%)	9.3%
EAST MIDLANDS	44 (4.2%)	39 (3.5%)	41 (2.7%)	50 (4%)	37 (3.3%)	51 (4%)	37 (3.3%)	(2.3%)	7.2%
LONDON	199 (18.8%)	275 (25%)	264 (17.6%)	230 (18.7%)	232 (20.5%)	266 (20.8%)	234 (20.6%)	232 (21%)	13.4%
NORTH EAST	29 (2.7%)	24 (2.2%)	38 (2.5%)	32 (2.6%)	27 (2.4%)	32 (2.5%)	34 (3%)	31 (2.8%)	4.0%
NORTHERN IRELAND	64 (6%)	94 (8.6%)	119 (13.3%)	81 (6.6%)	82 (7.3%)	95 (7.4%)	96 (8.5%)	72 (6.5%)	2.8%
NORTH WEST	81 (7.7%)	103 (9.4%)	137 (9.2%)	99 (8%)	97 (8.6%)	93 (7.3%)	109 (9.6%)	96 (8.7%)	11.0%
SCOTLAND	116 (11%)	89 (8.1%)	152 (10.1%)	109 (8.8%)	59 (5.2%)	82 (6.4%)	114 (10.1%)	80 (7.2%)	8.2%
SOUTH EAST	151 (14.3%)	141 (12.8%)	211 (14.1%)	180 (14.5%)	187 (16.6%)	201 (15.7%)	144 (12.7%)	164 (14.8%)	13.7%
SOUTH WEST	104 (9.8%)	79 (7.2%)	109 (7.3%)	90 (7.3%)	95 (8.4%)	106 (8.3%)	69 (6%)	82 (7.4%)	8.4%
WALES	51 (4.8%)	42 (3.8%)	101 (6.8%)	61 (4.9%)	54 (4.8%)	48 (3.8%)	68 (6%)	32 (2.9%)	4.7%
WEST MIDLANDS	66 (6.2%)	59 (5.4%)	101 (6.8%)	90 (7.3%)	90 (8%)	85 (6.7%)	74 (6.5%)	68 (6.1%)	8.9%
YORKSHIRE AND HUMBERSIDE	61 (5.8%)	67 (6.1%)	99 (6.6%)	90 (7.3%)	63 (5.6%)	100 (7.8%)	65 (5.7%)	66 (6%)	8.2%

Honours recipients BD2019 - NY2023: Protected Characteristics

The percentages differ slightly from the percentages published on GOV.UK as the GOV.UK figures were calculated before all of the responses from honours recipients had been processed.

Protected Characteristic	% of the List BD19	% of the List NY20	% of the List BD20	% of the List NY21	% of the List BD21	% of the List NY22	% of the List BD22	% of the List NY23
Gender	47% female	51% female	49% female	49% female	50% female	47.9% female	51.5% female	51% female
Ethnicity	10% recipients from ethnic minority background	9.1% recipients from ethnic minority background	13% recipients from ethnic minority background	14.2% recipients from ethnic minority background	15% recipients from ethnic minority background	15.1% recipients from ethnic minority background	13.3% recipients from ethnic minority background	16.4% recipients from ethnic minority background
Disability	5.9% declared a disability	11% declared a disability	6% declared a disability	6.9% declared a disability	9% declared a disability	13.3% declared a disability	9.3% declared a disability	11% declared a disability
Sexual orientation	2.8% LGBTQ+	3.3% LGBTQ+	4.3% LGBTQ+	4% LGBTQ+	5% LGBTQ+	3.5% LGBTQ+	4.6% LGBTQ+	5% LGBTQ+
Socio-economic background	Data not collected prior to NY2021	Data not collected prior to NY2021	Data not collected prior to NY2021	17.8% consider themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background	17.3% consider themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background	25.5% consider themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background	26.4% consider themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background	29.2% consider themselves to be from a lower socio-economic background

Annex 5 - Forfeiture of Honours

Honours can be withdrawn (or ‘forfeited’) for a variety of reasons. This might include being found guilty of a criminal offence, behaviour which results in censure by a regulatory or a professional body, or any other behaviour that is deemed to bring the honours system into disrepute. A decision to forfeit an honour can be based on events that pre-date the award (for example, a past criminal conviction, even if spent), or conduct that occurs after the award is made.

Recommendations to remove honours are considered by the Forfeiture Committee. Each case is considered individually. The Committee’s recommendations for forfeiture are submitted through the Prime Minister to HM King for his approval.

Shown below is the number of people who have forfeited their honour during the period of the report.

Year	Number of forfeitures
2019	0
2020	12
2021	0
2022	0

Annex 6 - Refusals of Honours

Shown below is the number of people who have refused the offer of an honour during the reporting period. The standing of the honours system remains high and the number of refusals is very low.

List	Number of refusals
Birthday 2018	26
New Year 2019	27
Birthday 2019	23
New Year 2020	24
Birthday 2020	35
New Year 2021	22
Birthday 2021	24
New Year 2022	26
Birthday 2022	17
New Year 2023	26

The majority of people do not give any reason for refusing their award. Those who do give reasons often do so with humility, saying that they feel that their efforts are reward enough and that others are more deserving or that their service cannot be separated from that of a team.

Annex 7 - Honours case studies

BD19

Leonard Hardy BEM - For services to Armed Forces Veterans in Warwickshire

His service to veterans in Coventry and Warwickshire has been vast and he has achieved much in a relatively short space of time. As an ex-serviceman himself, he was aware of the difficulties some veterans faced when leaving the Armed Forces. Through his passion he was able to help create the Charity Veterans Contact Point (VCP) which provides veterans an overall package of support, all under one roof. Staffed entirely by volunteers they offer a wide range of services and support, helping in excess of 1000 ex-servicemen and women. The range of help offered has been from housing, back to work training and welfare payments. He is also responsible for raising awareness of military life to school and education establishments. Along with other veterans he gives talks and presentations to pupils and students on life and experiences in the Services. Since 2012 he has worked for Ubique Partnerships Ltd to work with disadvantaged people. He has given his passion and commitment to making a difference to the lives of veterans and ex-offenders throughout the county.

Denise Mccunnell BEM - For services to Victims of Sexual Abuse

After qualifying as a counsellor she set up Survivors (Hull and East Riding), an organisation dedicated to offering free therapeutic and support services to people who have experienced sexual trauma. This was initially dedicated to reaching men, but subsequently extended to both genders. Prior to her setting up Survivors there were no counselling services in Hull specifically for men who have been sexually abused as children. The impact in the community has been immense. Denise has been particularly selfless and committed in sustaining Survivors, fitting both counselling and running the organisation in around her full time job as well as supporting the organisation financially so it could stay afloat. It is no exaggeration to say that without her, this very important local charity would not exist. All of the services at Survivors are provided free of charge and Denise has been highly innovative and creative in keeping the organisation afloat. She has successfully gathered financial support from local companies, individuals, local government, Ministry of Justice, and the NHS. Survivors shut down in 2017 due to funding, but she has embarked on a new service called Trauma Centre which provides free trauma service to the local community for both male and female patients. She received the Hull Community Pioneer award in 2004.

William Gareth Davies MBE - For services to the community in Merthyr Tydfil

He was one of the founding members of Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association (MTAA) formed from two clubs in 1967, and he continues to be the Chairman of the Association. In 1967, the River Raff was still running black from the coal mines, or grey from open sewers. Along with the support from MTAA members and other bodies, he was instrumental in turning the black - grey river into an international standard fishing haven. This led to MTAA hosting the international Fly Fishing Championship in 2009, with keen anglers from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales visiting Merthyr to compete in this prestigious event. In the latter years, he has continued his high level of commitment even through his own ill health battles and that of his wife. His 50+ years in the association have all been voluntary, with his heart and passion being for the continuous improvement of the waterways around the Merthyr Valleys and beyond, all for the pleasure and enjoyment for all who visit. He is currently increasing the awareness of the fight of Fly Fishing Members across the UK, with the daily challenges they face including access rights to waterways.

NY20

Nicolette Peel MBE - For services to Women with Cancer during Pregnancy

Nicolette Peel started her career as a midwife in 2013 at the University of Salford, winning the Best Academic Achievement in Nursing & Midwifery for her cohort. She developed cancer shortly after the birth of her first child and was put in contact, by her own midwife, with a mother who was diagnosed with developed breast cancer during her pregnancy, and cared for her, though she sadly died. She co-founded the first charity of its kind to support women and their families with cancer during pregnancy and beyond. Mummy’s Star was launched in 2013, supporting pregnant women with cancer.

Irene Mcgrath BEM - For services to Scottish Debating

She has been a tireless and passionate ambassador for Scottish debating for the majority of her professional life. Having been a teacher of French and Russian in the same school for 39 years, she is also the Head of Academic Administration, helping hundreds – if not thousands – of children in their transition from secondary to further education. Despite the busy day job, Irene has been fundamental to not only the school’s debating programme but the entire Scottish Schools Debating programme. One colleague noted how she has been “the organiser, coach, manager, driver and travel agent” for debaters since 1980, highlighting her unstinting commitment to debating within Scotland. She is currently the chair of the Scottish Schools International Debating Council and presiding judge. While maintaining the role of chair for this Council, Irene has also been Secretary to the Executive of World Schools Debating Championships, an organisation she has been associated with for over 16 years.

BD20

Jolene Miller BEM - Train Driver, Northern Trains Ltd and Volunteer Paramedic. For services to the NHS during Covid-19

She has contributed a tremendous amount to help key workers since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. On alternate weeks she drove Northern trains transporting key workers to their workplace and on the second week she returned to her previous role as Paramedic with the NHS. As Jolene had maintained her professional membership as a Paramedic, she felt that she could make a difference volunteering for the NHS, and rather than go back full-time she came up with the idea of splitting her time to do both roles. She provided voluntary critical care for those with COVID-19 and went to extraordinary lengths to keep critical services going both in the frontline NHS and frontline transport services. In the weeks she was with the NHS she was working at her local Accident and Emergency department on the COVID-19 side as a hospital liaison officer. She triaged patients as they arrived by ambulance enabling them to get the most appropriate care and looked after the patients until rooms became available. This allowed the full-time paramedic crews to get back out on the road to respond to the next emergency.

Geoffrey Norris BEM, Customer Delivery Driver, Asda. For services to the Covid-19 response

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he took on the extra role of looking after vulnerable and elderly customers by doing their shopping for them on his days off and delivering it in his own car. He sought volunteers from among his colleagues to help out in their own time to deliver food to those who were self-isolating and vulnerable due to COVID-19. When he learned that a regular customer would be by herself on her 90th birthday, Geoff organised a surprise for her. Observing social distancing guidelines, Geoff and colleagues decorated the outside of her bungalow with balloons, brought her cake and flowers and read out birthday messages from her family (who live in New Zealand) before singing happy birthday.

NY21

David John Bagley MBE - For services to Homeless and Disadvantaged People

He works to improve the lives of the homeless and most disadvantaged and vulnerable individuals in Bolton. He and his partner founded Urban Outreach in 1990, greatly improving thousands of lives in the local area. He is deeply committed to building strong partnerships between churches, organisations and individuals, advocating the needs of the poor. When the first lockdown was announced, he immediately responded by establishing and leading Bolton’s Humanitarian Food Hub, as the number of households needing their help rose from 400 to 2,000 per week in the first 12 weeks of the pandemic. Between them, they have had a transformational effect upon the lives of thousands.

Jenny Williams BEM - For services to the community through culture and creativity during Covid-19

She is one of few black female leaders in the arts and cultural sector and has sucessfully evolved the Creative People and Places Project in Luton to be extremely relevant to communities and artists locally. During Covid-19 she led the Revolution Arts team to be one of the most impactful CPP projects in the country. She created a platform to showcase their creativity and unlock the stories and hidden voices of Luton. She and her team pulled together an excellent programme of digital events, running every Thursday and Friday online and free to access. She has volunteered admin time and resources to local grassroots organisations to help them deliver essential services during this time, partnering with the local food bank and pupil referral services to get musical instruments, creative packs and support to families in need. She has had a dedicated platform for young people both to participate in and to create employment opportunities.This programme has also employed artists and creative practitioners from Sinfonia Verdi, Independent Music artists in partnership with the Music Education Hub and Local Theatre Makers and Writers.

Barnabas Jester Cox BEM - For voluntary services to Health Workers in Scotland during the Covid-19 Response

An enterprising and caring young entrepreneur, at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he responded to the urgent shortage of PPE by adapting his business to produce vital safety equipment for frontline health workers and the vulnerable. He has been generous with his skills and knowledge and has been willing to share the technology and the software behind the systems he used to create this PPE. All of the software is open source. He also helps other businesses to develop functioning 3D printing technology, showing them how to optimise their systems and be most effective when time is of the essence. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he continued to produce PPE for those who needed it, particularly key healthcare workers, the elderly and others.

BD21

Reha Begum Ullah BEM - For services to diversity in sport

She joined the Muslimah Sport Association as a trustee in 2016. The Muslimah Sport Association aims to offer women a safe and positive environment to participate in a number of different sports without compromising their religious or cultural beliefs. She went on to become a coach for Football, Fencing as well as an activator for Tennis and Badminton. Shortly after, she became the coordinator for East London British Fencing. She was the first manager to enter a team in a women’s football league, she leads on charity tournaments and is a key speaker in the association’s positive minds workshops.

Carol Aston BEM - For services to Policing and the community in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire during the Covid-19 Pandemic

She is a rare character who uses her quiet, dogged determination to make a difference to individuals and the community she lives in. In her role as a Designing Out Crime Officer, she’s been involved in community-focussed work for many years, establishing Age Concern groups, Neighbourhood Watch initiatives, youth clubs, community groups, and a Safer Streets campaign ‘ to improve relations between developers, police and communities. She uses her expertise and influence to positively impact hundreds of thousands of current and future residents, embodying Cambridgeshire Constabulary’s mission statement to prevent crime, safeguard the vulnerable, and deliver a high-quality service.

NY22

Trevor William Lockhart MBE - For services to the Agri-food Industry and the Economy of Northern Ireland

As an ardent business ambassador for Northern Ireland’s Agri-food industry, he is one of the country’s most respected businessmen and a champion of farming and local food. His dedication and personal vision has made a sustained contribution to the economic development and growth of the Agri-food industry. Joining Fane Valley Co-operative Society in 2004, he rose to Deputy Chief Executive in 2006 and Chief Executive in 2007. He has overseen the growth, through acquisition and consolidation, of Fane Valley, which has become the largest trading farming co-operative in NI with operations across the UK, the Republic of Ireland and Europe. Despite sustained uncertainty and considerable challenges, he has ensured the Co-op has continued to thrive by maintaining a strong focus on the continuous improvement of its products, processes and people.

Jacqueline Mary O’Hanlon - For services to the Arts

As the Director of Education at the Royal Shakespeare Company since 2008, she has enabled thousands of children & young people nationally and internationally to experience world-class theatre, changing lives in some of our most disadvantaged communities. She has grown its reach and impact across the UK and into new territories internationally, such as China. She has forged new partnerships, reaching over half a million children per year – including introducing ‘Live lessons’, in which Shakespeare is streamed directly into classrooms. She pioneered the RSC’s work in places of high cultural deprivation with academic research demonstrating the difference this has made in confidence and literacy to young people in poorer communities. Most recently, she has introduced a talent development programme for young people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to begin a career in the arts. Her expertise and knowledge are sought at the highest level and she is a national spokesperson for the value of the arts in education. She was a Commissioner on the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value and is currently a Durham Commissioner on Creativity and Education.

Muhammad Kamil Ali BEM - For services to Education

As a young A-Level student, he volunteered with the British Community Professional Development Trust (BCPD Trust) to support young people through tutoring. He supported young people by providing free maths and English tuition to catch-up on lost learning during the lockdown. He prepared 130 hours of free English and Maths tuition material and provided small group tuition in these subjects on a weekly basis. In his own time, he provided English and Maths classes over Skype every day, Monday to Friday for GCSE students during lockdown, and continued to offer free tuition classes after school even after the children returned to school.

BD22

Sanjeevini Dutta MBE - For services to Dance

She trained in Odissi, a classical Indian dance, for two decades and is now the Director of Kadam Dance, a Luton-based South Asian Dance and Music company. Alongside Bisakha Sarker, as one-half of Sanchari, she toured ‘Rhythms of Life’ and ‘Tending the Fire’ nationally. She jointly led Kadam Dance and the Kadam Dance Summer School which became renowned nationally. Her training and passion for Odissi led to the first sustained Odissi dance class in the East of England. She took over the publication of Pulse in 2008, taking the magazine in the direction of greater popular appeal, bringing full colour, gorgeous photographs, inclusion of music coverage and more focus on dancers and productions.

Richard Stroud MBE - For services to the Interfaith Community in West Yorkshire

He created an innovative scheme to hold interfaith forums which work to resolve conflict, protect and enhance working and living in harmony. The purpose of his interfaith work has been to tackle areas of conflict, educate and widen the movement across West Yorkshire. These relationships helped his fight to save the only Jewish synagogue in Bradford. He influenced discussions with faith and political leaders which enabled the international definition of anti-Semitism to be accepted by political parties, local councils and other organisations. As Vice Chair of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation (YYAF), he is engaged in publicising the award, selecting candidates and fundraising. The YYAF has raised over £1.4m, which has provided essential equipment to members and financially supports the charity ‘Support Dogs’ which trains support dogs for autistic and epileptic children and their families.

NY23

Peter Offord Davies BEM - For services to Education

Since 2017, he has been driving his motorised scooter through the gates of Dean Valley Community Primary School, Bollington, with an important mission - to get pupils reading. A regular visitor on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he has made reading fun for pupils through his own self-deprecating and humorous style, helping them relax and be confident in speaking aloud. Now at 100 years old, he himself is a living history lesson and over the years has captivated classes with tales and presentations of his own adventures and challenges in life, whether his first days at school, his service in the Second World War or his previous life as a local councillor and mayor. His civic duty stretches beyond just serving this one school, as he has also served as a local councillor, and mayor, for Bollington Town, and Macclesfield Borough Council in earlier decades.

Brian Richard Phillips MBE - For services to children and young people with disabilities

He has acted as founding trustee of the Petty Pool Trust since its creation 40 years ago. The Trust, which currently helps around 120 children with SEN, offers education and skills training to prepare them for possible employment and independent living. He was responsible for identifying the current site, negotiating the purchase and brokering a mortgage to secure funding for the construction works required. When the charity suffered problems when the company engaged to build the main buildings folded and Petty Pool lost the advance payments they had made, he then used his local business connections to persuade a building contractor to complete the work for free. He confidently steers the trust forward in changing times and has never lost his focus on delivering life changing experiences to some of the most disadvantaged children in the country.

Elaine Jean Boyd OBE - For Public and Charitable Services

Named by the UK Shaw Trust as one of the 100 most influential people living with a disability in the UK, her 35-year career spans working in finance and audit in the private, public and charity sectors. She is now responsible for the direction of Public Audit Scotland, the watchdog for public spending. She has revised the Code of Audit Practice, which shapes, defines and gives strategic direction to the independent audit of public bodies in Scotland. Her revisions ensure that this Code reinforces public audit’s focus on wider areas other than financial reporting, including financial sustainability, clarity of vision, leadership, governance and continuous improvement. She has shown her exceptional ability to lead, influence and secure the trust of the Auditor General, the Accounts Commission, Audit Scotland Board, audit providers and audited bodies in developing this comprehensive Code. She has come just about as far from the career outlined for her as a student, talking on challenges that any would consider demanding and ensuring she consistently delivers improvements with wide reaching positive impact. Although she has managed to overcome challenges in her own life, she believes the accountancy profession can do more to encourage the inclusion of disabled people. She is seen as a fantastic ambassador and role model, for the accountancy profession and particularly for young people with CP. She has never stopped pushing to see what she can do and encourages so many others around her – at work and in her voluntary positions. She has always been determined to fight against people’s low expectations for people living with disabilities.

1. Suggesting Someone for an Honour (ER) (pdf, 4.1 mb) ↩

2. The way we give honours (ER) (pdf, 2.6 mb) ↩

3. New honours website ↩