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Honours System (Reform)

: I am delighted to have this opportunity to respond to the debate, which has been remarkable in its tone. That is probably down to the way in which my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) introduced it; he helped to influence its tone and content. I do not think that it is controversial to say that, at times, it has been more of a conversation than a debate, which is not a bad thing. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown) without whose perseverance I would not have the honour of responding to today's debate on behalf of the Prime Minister. I think that we all congratulate him on that. We are short of time in our deliberations this evening, but I, like other hon. Members, want to pay tribute to one outstanding individual in my constituency: the Rev. Ernest Levy, MBE. In the nine years that I have been in Parliament, it has been my proudest moment hearing that he was to be honoured, because I nominated him. The reason why I nominated him—more than once—was that he survived seven concentration camps and then dedicated his entire life in Scotland to encouraging reconciliation and promoting dialogue between people of the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other faiths. He has visited hundreds of schools throughout Scotland, and continues to do so. His case is one of the many fantastic examples of an honour being rightly awarded. I turn to the issues raised today. If any hon. Member feels that I have not responded to all of the local points that they made, I will happily write to them, if encouraged to do so, with more substantial and specific responses. The hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone) asked about a constituency matter. I confirm that the list submitted to Her Majesty is limited to 1,000 names per annum. That is the established upper limit on names that can be submitted. By custom and practice, Her Majesty takes a personal interest in literally every one of those nominations, so that is considered to be the appropriate number to enable such genuine involvement and engagement from Her Majesty. The hon. Gentleman quite rightly did not mention the name of his constituent, but requested that I should take some interest in the case. This is quite a difficult issue, in that some hon. Members say that we should have more political involvement and some that we should have less. It is therefore difficult for me to promise to fast-track any application, because that would be inappropriate. If the hon. Gentleman wants to identify the individual concerned to me outside of our deliberations, I will certainly ensure that all the relevant processes are followed appropriately. That is the right thing to do. My hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Mr. Wills), who is no longer present—I know that he cannot be with us—raised a point that was followed up by other hon. Members. He asked whether awards should be for service or achievement. A related issue in which I am most interested and have taken a keen interest is the way in which that affects the gender balance, or imbalance, in our awards system. If awards are given simply for achievement or position in a society in which, despite substantial progress in recent decades, position and power are still disproportionately allocated between men and women—if we reward simply status and people who have held official positions—the system will have an in-built bias towards men. However, there has been some important progress in that regard in recent years, as we have increased the emphasis on awarding honours to those who work in public services and the voluntary sector. An important point that many have picked up on is the need to award the higher honours to those who work locally but who act as examples nationally. That is the distinction that the Government draw; we are talking about local action from which people can draw national inspiration. For example, 49 teachers were on the new year honours list of 2006. Hon. Members have spoken about head teachers; only one has been made a dame. Some 20 per cent. of honours go to those in the health service and education, and almost 40 per cent. of awards go to those working in local services and the charitable and voluntary sectors.