Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Cabinet Office guidance entitled Privacy information relating to honours nominations, updated 6 October 2026, what procedures are available to an honours nominee to establish whether information held concerning their political opinions is inaccurate and to seek its correction; and what guidance her Department's data protection team has provided to the honours team on the applicability of UK GDPR rights in relation to honours.

The Cabinet Office seeks to comply with data protection principles, including the obligations that data is processed lawfully, that it is only collected for a specified purpose, that it is adequate and relevant to that purpose and that it is accurate and kept up to date where necessary.

When personal data is processed in relation to honours nominations it is exempt, by virtue of paragraph 15 of schedule 2 to the Data Protection Act 2018, from all data subject rights under Part 3 of UK GDPR other than those that relate to automated decision making. Honours decisions are not in any event made using automated decision making.

The restriction of data subject rights applies where personal data is processed for the purposes of conferring by the Crown of any honour or dignity. This scope of this exemption is not defined in the Act. However, the Information Commission's guidance on the "conferral of honours", per section 37(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act includes lists of nominees; discussions around the merits and achievements of nominees and the policies and procedures that underpin the process.