| The Funding of Political Parties in the United Kingdom | ||||
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CHAPTER TEN HONOURS 10.1 The Neill Committee considered that the determination of awards should be made on merit, irrespective of whether nominees have made a donation to a political party. But they noted that, on occasion, the timing of any donation or its size, or other special factors, might lead to advice to the Prime Minister against his recommending an award at a particular time. The Committee also noted that there was a considerable public perception that a particular donation might have led, or had led "rather rapidly", to an honour. To allay such concern, they proposed that the remit of the Political Honours Scrutiny Committee (PHSC) should be widened so that the Committee could scrutinise not only nominations for political services coming directly from the Prime Minister (which currently include all Life Peerages) but also all those nominations in the higher levels of the Prime Minister's Honours Lists which had been considered by expert assessment groups. 10.2 The Government agrees with the Neill Committee's conclusion that donors to political parties should not be ruled out automatically for consideration for an honour, but that it would be improper to confer an honour if a donation to a political party was treated as making up for insufficient merit. The Government therefore accepts the three recommendations (R98 to R100) made by the Committee for strengthening the role of the PHSC. It believes that the Scrutiny Committee should continue to exercise a proper judgement on the significance of any political donations, judging each donation in context. Amongst the relevant factors which the PHSC at present considers are:
The Government agrees that these are proper criteria to apply to the new categories of nominee which will now be referred to the Committee. 10.3 Once the Electoral Commission's register of political donations is in place (see paragraph 3.18 above), the PHSC will be invited to scrutinise for propriety in respect of political donations all those whom the Prime Minister is minded to recommend for an honour at Knight/Dame level, irrespective of whether the nomination is for political or for other services. In examining such nominations, the PHSC will take account of all donations of £5,000 or more to any political party or, if this can be ascertained, a related party fund, made over the previous five years by the individual, or by a company or trade union in which he or she has a significant managerial role. As it will take five years for the Electoral Commission to build up a full history of disclosable donations, the PHSC will continue during the transitional period to look to the Chief Whip of the relevant party for information about donations made prior to the setting up of the Electoral Commission's register. 10.4 The Government agrees in principle with the Neill Committee's recommendation (R98) that these new scrutiny arrangements should also be extended to all candidates at CBE level. However, the number of recommendations at CBE level (around 120 per honours list) is considerably greater than those at Knight/Dame level (around 35). In these circumstances, and in view of the fact that scrutiny has to be undertaken to a very tight timetable, the Government proposes to wait until the Electoral Commission's register covers at least three years of disclosable donations before extending the new scrutiny arrangement to CBE candidates generally. However, candidates at this level nominated for political services, or added to the list by the Prime Minister, will continue to be subject to scrutiny by the PHSC. In the interim, the record of any disclosable donations to political parties made by such individuals during the build-up of the register will of course be transparent to the public. 10.5 As recommended by the Neill Committee (R99), the PHSC will be invited to monitor the relationship between nominations for honours (initially at Knight/Dame level but subsequently extended to CBE level) and donations to political parties. Each year, following the publication of the New Year and Birthday Honours Lists, the Committee will present to the Prime Minister their views on whether, bearing in mind the achievements of the candidates, they have detected any undue preponderance of honours being conferred, or being conferred "rather rapidly", on those who have directly or indirectly made party political donations. The Prime Minister will make the Committee's view available to Parliament. The Committee's advice on individual nominations will remain confidential. 10.6 The designation of the PHSC (R100) and its terms of reference will be changed in the light of the Government's proposals1 to transfer the scrutiny of all recommendations for Life Peerages to an independent Appointments Commission. The Appointments Commission will also be responsible for nominating cross-bench peers in the transitional House of Lords. In undertaking its scrutiny role, the Appointments Commission will be asked to adopt the same enhanced practices in relation to political donations as the PHSC. However, they will need to do this in the context of the appointment of Life Peers specifically to contribute to the work of Parliament on a regular basis, and in some cases to do so as representatives of a named political party at the invitation of the Party Leader.
1 As set out in chapter 6 of the Government's White Paper 'Modernising Parliament : Reforming the House of Lords' (Cm 4183, January 1999).
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