Honours system reform urged

Michael Dugher, MP and shadow cabinet office minister, says Labour welcomes the report into a possible overhaul of the honours system.

Former Olympic swimmer Duncan Alexander Goodhew MBE, told ITV News that you cannot put "a quote on excellence" and that the honours systems provides a means of rewarding people who volunteer their time for free.

Alexander won Olympic gold and bronze for Great Britain at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The Cabinet Office denied the honours were dominated by politicians and celebrities, with 72% of the awards in the last honours list going to people who were actively involved in charitable or voluntary work.

MPs have also called for the overhaul of the Honours Forfeiture Committee which stripped former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

It expressed concern that the forfeiture committee had been reacting to a "media storm" and said that the criteria for removing an honour needed to be clearly set out.

MPs have called for the creation of an independent honours commission to oversee the system, removing the Prime Minister's power to provide "strategic direction", and restoring the "character and integrity" of the process.

It said that in future more detailed citations should be published for honours awarded at the level of CBE and above in order to help counter concerns they reward donations to political parties.

Although efforts had been made to open up the membership of the various honours committees, which make recommendations for awards, the committee said they were still dominated by an "establishment elite", MPs added.

• The committee has expressed concern that the lack of transparency about the way the honours system operated.
• The system had created an impression that honours could be "bought" - undermining credibility of the whole process, MPs have said.

• Despite efforts to change public perceptions, it said there was still a belief that honours were used to thank donors to political parties, or were received "automatically" by senior civil servants.

• There was also evidence that honours were not being awarded evenly across the UK.
• The devolved nations - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - as well as some English regions receiving more than is "proportionate for their population size", MPs have said.

David Cameron has made clear that he wants the "vast majority" of honours to go to individuals who have gone "beyond excellence" in contributing to his vision of a "Big Society".

However the committee said there was still a perception that celebrities and sports stars were more likely to be honoured than people who had put in years of service to their communities.

Too many honours are awarded to politicians, celebrities and civil servants rather than to people who devote time and effort to sport and their local communities, MPs said today.

The Commons Public Administration Select Committee condemned the granting of knighthoods to businessmen and senior officials for simply "doing the day job".

It called for a radical overhaul of the system, with the stripping out of all political influence and the creation of an independent honours commission, in order to restore credibility in the eyes of the public.

In its report, the committee said that honours should only be given for "exceptional service above and beyond the call of duty".