PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: Honours (18 March 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what criteria were used to select the businesses and organisations that were contacted with the opportunity to attend training courses on submitting an honours nomination.

Asked by:
Fleur Anderson (Labour)

The Department wants to raise awareness of the honours process to encourage the nomination of individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to public life and to our economic future. We do not provide a training course on how to submit an honours nomination.

Prior to the publication of an honours list the Department will write to stakeholders known to BEIS inviting them to consider nominating individuals who they think are worthy of recognition and, where appropriate, to encourage their members to consider nominations.

Several hundred stakeholders are contacted including businesses, business representatives, employee representatives, academics, science and technology representatives and charities. Our aim is to ensure that the honours system reflects our diverse society and is a source of inspiration to others. The stakeholders who receive a letter are representative of a wide range of sectors, fields, and communities from across the UK.

In order to support our awareness raising effort, Cabinet Office and BEIS officials will host three webinars on 29^th and 31^st March. The webinars will provide a brief overview of the honours system, provide an opportunity to hear from recipients of honours and cover the guidance about how to write a nomination that can be found at: www.gov.uk/honours.

The webinars are open to anyone and people wanting to attend can register on the Eventbrite internet page by searching ‘honours’. The same material will be covered at each webinar.

Answered by:
Amanda Solloway (Conservative)
23 March 2021