Honours and Awards
The Honours System
The honours system recognises people who have made achievements in public life and committed themselves to serving and helping Britain.
Whether someone gets an honour - and the honour they get - is decided by an Honours Committee. The committee’s decisions go to the Prime Minister and then to the Queen, who awards the honour.
You can find out more about the Honours system from their website.
The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK.
You can nominate a group for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service online. You don’t have to be part of the group and you can make your nomination at any time.
The central Government website provides further information about the nomination process.
View a list of successful voluntary groups in Staffordshire.
The Queen’s Award for Enterprise
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are awards for outstanding achievement by UK businesses in the categories of:
- Innovation
- international trade
- sustainable development
Guidance is available from the Queen's Awards for Enterprise web site.
Enterprise promotion awards
The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion is for individual people who have played an important role in promoting enterprise skills and supporting entrepreneurs.
This could be by:
- Giving up their time to help potential entrepreneurs in education or in starting a business
- working in education, training or youth work to help provide others with enterprise skills
You can make a nomination by using the online application.
Guidance notes and sample entry forms are available from the Queen’s Awards website.
Please note: entries are by nomination only. You can’t nominate yourself for an award.
The Elizabeth Cross
The Elizabeth Cross is a commemorative emblem given to the recognised next of kin of members of the British Armed Forces killed in action or as a result of a terrorist attack after the Second World War. It bears the name of the current British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
More information regarding the Elizabeth Cross can be found on the official British Monarchy web site. You can also request an Elizabeth Cross and Memorial Scroll from the central Government.