Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925
7 August 1925 | |
Other legislation | |
---|---|
Relates to | Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, Bribery Act 2010 |
Status: Current legislation | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Text of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. |
The Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 is an
Lloyd George honours scandal
The act was brought in after the Liberal Party government of
Prime Minister Lloyd George in mid-1922 was fast losing his political support, and his sales were denounced in the House of Lords as an abuse of the Prime Minister's powers of patronage.[9]
Only one person has ever been convicted under the Act – Maundy Gregory, Lloyd George's "honours broker", in 1933 – whose same behaviour in 1918 was the main cause of the Act in the first place. Gregory's 1933 conviction was secured over his attempts to broker the selling of Vatican knighthoods in the UK. To this date, the Act has never been successfully used to convict anyone involved in the sale of UK honours.
2006: Cash for honours
In March 2006, following complaints by Scottish National Party MP Angus MacNeil, the Metropolitan Police started investigating possible breaches of the Act. A total of £5 million in loans was given by four wealthy businessmen to the Labour Party during the 2005 general election campaign, the men were subsequently nominated by Tony Blair for peerages.[10] All four of the peerages were blocked by the House of Lords appointments commission. The police inquiries led to 136 people being interviewed, including Tony Blair, the first prime minister to be questioned by police as part of a political corruption inquiry, albeit "as a witness rather than a suspect". In 2007, after a £1.4 million, 19-month investigation, the police handed a 216-page report with 6,300 supporting documents to the Crown Prosecution Service which later announced it had insufficient evidence to bring charges against anyone.[10]
2021: Cash for favours scandal
In September 2021,
See also
- Cash for Honours, in 21st century politics
- Political funding in the United Kingdom
References
- Short titleas conferred by s. 2 of the Act; the modern convention for the citation of short titles omits the comma after the word "Act".
- .
- ^ Hanham, Harold J. (1960). "The sale of honours in late Victorian England". Victorian Studies. 3 (3): 277–289.
- ISBN 0214200493.
- ^ Rowland, Peter (1975). Lloyd George. p. 448.
- ^ Commons, House of (7 July 2004). "Fifth Report of the Select Committee on Public Administration". Public Administration.
- ISBN 978-0-230-62913-4.
- ISBN 978-1-4481-7107-1.
- ISBN 9781780764856.
- ^ a b "'Cash-for-honours' timeline". The Guardian. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ Low, Valentine (8 September 2021). "Prince Charles has 'no knowledge' of cash-for-honours allegations". The Times.
- ^ Pogrund, Gabriel; Gadher, Dipesh (4 September 2021). "Prince Charles aides fixed CBE for Saudi tycoon who gave £1.5m". The Sunday Times.
- ^ Grierson, Jamie (19 September 2021). "Prince Charles 'cash-for-honours' scandal grows with fresh allegations". the Guardian.
- ^ Scobie, Omid (7 September 2021). "Buckingham Palace's Statement Regarding Cash-for-Honors Allegations". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
- ^ @metpoliceuk (16 February 2022). "We have launched an investigation into allegations of offences under the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. Decision follows an assessment of a Sep 2021 letter, related to media reporting alleging offers of help made to secure honours and citizenship for a Saudi national" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "Breaking: Met Police investigate cash-for-honours allegations against Prince Charles' charity". City A.M. 16 February 2022. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
- ^ a b "Cash-for-honours police pass file on King's aide Michael Fawcett to prosecutors". The Times. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
Further reading
- Jenkins, T. A. "The funding of the Liberal Unionist party and the honours system." English Historical Review 105.417 (1990): 920–938. in JSTOR
- Hanham, H.J. "The sale of honours in late Victorian England." Victorian Studies 3#3 (1960): 277–289. in JSTOR
- Rowland, Peter. Lloyd George (1975) pp 447–48, 574–78, 631–33.
External links
- Text of the Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk.
- BBC News article about the announcement of the investigation
- Posting from the blog Archived 23 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine of BBC News political editor Nick Robinson about the Act and the possibility of prosecutions, 21 March 2006.