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Honours: Public Appointments

Asked by Mr Richard HoldenConservativeCabinet OfficeTabled Answered 21 January 2025UIN 23477

The question

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14712 on Honours: Public Appointments, if he will list the assessment panel members for each of those competitions (a) before they closed and (b) after they re-opened.

Answered by Georgia Gould

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14712 on Honours: Public Appointments, the assessment panel members for each of the competitions mentioned (a) before they closed and (b) after they re-opened are as follows:

(i) Community and Voluntary Service:

  1. Panel before the advert closed: The Rt Hon Nick Hurd - Chair, Community and Voluntary Service Honours Committee; Meenal Sachdev - Co-Founder of Connect India (independent panel member); Alison Bennett - (then) Deputy Director, Honours and Appointments Secretariat, Cabinet Office.

  2. Panel after advert re-opened: The Rt Hon Nick Hurd - Chair, Community and Voluntary Service Honours Committee; Vijay Krishnarayan - former Director, Commonwealth Foundation (independent panel member); Official from the Honours and Memorialisation Secretariats, Cabinet Office.

(ii) Parliamentary and Political Service:

  1. Panel before the advert closed: Lord Sherbourne - Chair, Parliamentary and Political Service Honours Committee; Natascha Engel - former MP (independent panel member); Alison Bennett - (then) Deputy Director, Honours and Appointments Secretariat.

  2. Panel after advert re-opened: Lord Sherbourne - Chair, Parliamentary and Political Service Honours Committee; Natascha Engel - former MP (independent panel member); Clare Brunton OBE - Deputy Director, Honours and Memorialisation

Secretariats.

(iii) Diversity and Outreach (formerly called Representation and Outreach):

  1. Panel before advert closed: Sir Chris Wormald KCB - (then) Chair, Main Honours Committee, Mary Mcleod - CEO, Business in the Community; Alison Bennett - (then) Deputy Director, Honours and Appointments Secretariat, Cabinet Office.

  2. Panel after advert reopened: Sir Chris Wormald KCB - (then) Chair, Main Honours Committee (this was what was advertised - he will now be replaced by Dame Tamara Finkelstein as the new Chair, Main Honours Committee); Official from the Honours and Memorialisation Secretariats. The independent panel member has not yet been confirmed.

As is longstanding practice, officials in the delegated grades (i.e. who are not Senior Civil Servants) are not normally named publicly.

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