MPs call for reform of honours system
A committee of MPs has called for a radical reform of the “anachronistic” honours system.
The Commons Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) said that the current honours system is “secretive, over-complicated and out of date.”
The MPs argue that the system also unfairly favours civil servants, diplomats and members of the armed forces. They argue that the receipt of seemingly “automatic” honours by these groups for simply doing their job “create a sense of unfairness and undermine the credibility of the system”.
Among the key recommendations are that the title, “Order of the British Empire” should be abolished and replaced with “Order of British Excellence.” The poet Benjamin Zephaniah famously rejected an OBE saying that the term empire “reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality.”
The committee effectively agreed with Mr Zephaniah’s sentiments, saying the use of the word empire is “anachronistic and insensitive, an inappropriate symbol for today’s Britain”.
It also recommends that knighthoods and damehoods be phased out, noting they are “redolent of past preoccupations with rank and class”.
A new Honours Commission is proposed to remove civil servants from decision making on honours and reduce suspicion that honours are used as a political management tool by the government of the day. They also recommend a simpler system with only four honours rather than the current 16.
Committee Chairman Tony Wright said: “Honours are a way for the nation to recognise service and achievement. This is important, which is why the honours system needs to be taken seriously. We need to ensure that it is fit for purpose, which means making changes to it from time to time.
“In our view, the system now needs radical and systematic reform, which our recommendations are designed to achieve. These are bold proposals, and we hope the Government will be equally bold in its response to them.”
