Chapter 02: What constitutes information of the type covered by this exemption?
2.1 The exemption at section 37(1)(b) covers all information
relating to:
the award of honours in the various Orders of Knighthood (the Order
of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle, the Order of Merit, the Royal
Victorian Order, the Order of the Bath, the Order of St Michael and
St George, the Companions of Honour, the Order of the British Empire
and the Imperial Service Order);
the appointment of Knights Bachelor;
military medals and decorations (eg the Victoria Cross, the Distinguished
Service Order, the General Service Medal, the Operational Service
Medal, etc);
awards made for gallantry (eg the George Cross, the George Medal,
The Queen's Gallantry Medal, etc);
other medals and decorations conferred by The Queen (eg The Queen's
Police Medal, The Queen's Fire Service Medal)
other awards granted by The Queen (eg The Queen's Award for Enterprise,
The Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education, The
Queen's Award for Voluntary Service);
foreign or international awards where The Queen's permission is
required or sought to accept and wear them;
creation of life peers;
creation of hereditary titles;
appointments as Lords Lieutenant and Vice Lords Lieutenant;
appointments as Governor-Generals, Governors and Lieutenant-Governors;
appointments to the Privy Council.
2.2 Most appointments to offices are not covered by this
exemption. However some Crown appointments (both secular and ecclesiastical)
will come within the category of "honour or dignity" and so will
come within this section. For example, some senior Church appointments (the
appointment of archbishops, diocesan bishops, suffragan bishops, deans of
cathedrals, deans and canons of the two Royal Peculiars and the First and
Second Church Estates Commissioners) are dignities and so will fall within
this section.
2.3 Judicial appointments are not covered by section 37(1)(b)
but information relating to them might be covered by section 31(1)(c) (or
section 40). Thus whereas appointments to the Privy Council are covered
by section 37(1)(b) appointments to the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council is not covered by section 37(1)(b), but might be covered by section
31(1)(c).
2.4 Appointment to Queen's Counsel is not covered by section
37(1)(b).
2.5 The information to which this exemption relates may
take the form of:
information about individual candidates for or recipients of awards,
which may be in the form of citations, interdepartmental correspondence,
committee papers and notes of meetings, nomination forms, references
and associated correspondence etc (this information is very likely
to be personal information within the terms of section 40);
information about the honours or dignities process, for example
the structure of the honours assessment committees, the working of
the House of Lords Appointment Commission, the procedures under which
honours may be forfeited etc; and
information about honours or dignities policy, for example the discussion
leading up to and the decisions taken about the qualifying conditions
for the award of military medals, papers dealing with the honours
reviews which take place every five years, proposals for possible
new awards etc.
