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Honours Forfeiture Committee

UK government committee

Summary

UK government committee

FieldValue
nameHonours Forfeiture Committee
alt
formation
extinction
typeUK Cabinet Office sub-committee
statusad hoc
purpose
general
leader_titleChair
leader_nameHead of the Home Civil Service
main_organ
parent_organization
affiliations

The Honours Forfeiture Committee is an ad hoc committee convened under the United Kingdom Cabinet Office, which considers cases referred to the prime minister of the United Kingdom where an individual's actions subsequent to their being awarded a British honour raises the question of whether they should be allowed to continue to be a holder. Recommendations are made to the Monarch of the United Kingdom, who has the sole authority to rescind an honour.

Operations

The committee is only convened at the request of the Prime Minister, under the chairmanship of the Head of the Home Civil Service.

The committee conducts its business by correspondence, and only meets to confer about a decision where the probability is to rescind an honour. The committee only considers cases where an individual who has been honoured is judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute, including issues covering someone who:

  • has been found guilty by the courts of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more
  • has been censured, struck off, etc. by the relevant professional or other regulatory authority for action or inaction which was directly relevant to the granting of the honours.

If there is other compelling evidence that an individual has brought the honours system into disrepute, then it is open to the committee to consider such cases as well. The committee also considers matters of general policy regarding forfeiture.

In 2009, Gordon Brown confirmed that the process remains as set out in 1994 by the then Prime Minister John Major in a written answer to the House of Commons:

All decisions made by the committee are submitted to the Monarch through the Office of the Prime Minister. The subjects discussed by the Committee remain confidential at all times, until confirmed by the Monarch.

Decisions on forfeiture are published in the London Gazette.

Composition

The Forfeiture Committee has a majority of independent members. It is chaired by Dame Sarah Healey (previous chairs include Sir Chris Wormald and Sir Jonathan Stephens), on delegated authority from the Cabinet Secretary. The other members are the Treasury solicitor and four independent members.

As of November 2025 its membership is as follows:

  • Dame Sarah Healey: July 2025–present (Chair)
  • Susanna McGibbon: March 2021–present
  • Sir Hamid Patel: October 2022–present (Independent)
  • John Booth CVO: October 2022–present (Independent)
  • Stephen Kelly: October 2022–present (Independent)
  • Dame Jane Dacre: October 2022–present (Independent)

Voluntary renouncing of honours

An individual can renounce their honour, by returning their insignia to Buckingham Palace and by ceasing to make any reference to having that honour, including ceasing using the honour post-nominals. However, only the monarch can annul an honour, and the individual would still hold the honour unless and until annulled by the monarch.

References

References

  1. (31 January 2012). "Former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin stripped of his knighthood". [[Daily Telegraph]].
  2. "Honours Forfeiture Committee". direct.gov.uk.
  3. "Written Answers for 12 February 2009 (pt 0004)". House of Commons Hansard.
  4. (2 December 1994). "Written Answers for 2 December 1994, vol 250 c923W". [[Hansard.
  5. "Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament".
  6. (26 January 2012). "Queen's honours: People who have turned them down named". [[BBC News]].
  7. (24 June 1940). "People". Time Magazine.
  8. (16 November 1979). "Blunt revealed as fourth man". [[BBC News]].
  9. (31 January 2012). "Honours stripped: Who else has lost out?". [[BBC News]].
  10. "Life and high-flying times of four partners in crime". [[The Scotsman]].
  11. (31 January 2012). "Goodwin Knighthood decision". [[Cabinet Office]].
  12. (3 March 2015). "Disgraced entertainer Rolf Harris stripped of CBE". BBC.
  13. (3 March 2015). "Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood". [[London Gazette]].
  14. (March 2019). "Table of recipients who have forfeited honours". Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
  15. (2020-09-18). "Harvey Weinstein: Jailed movie producer stripped of honorary CBE". BBC News.
  16. (23 February 2024). "Ex-Post Office boss Paula Vennells stripped of CBE". BBC News.
  17. (2021-09-30). "Having honours taken away (forfeiture)".
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

british-honours-system committees-of-the-united-kingdom-cabinet-office people-stripped-of-a-british-commonwealth-honour
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