Diamond Jubilee Civic Honours Competitions

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Thursday 16th June 2011 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper)]

On 1 December 2010 I announced the launch of the diamond jubilee civic honours competitions for the grant of city status and of lord mayoralty (or, in Scotland, lord provostship) to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s diamond jubilee in 2012. The closing date for entries was 27 May 2011.

I am pleased to announce that 26 applications for city status and 12 for lord mayoralties have been received. This is a magnificent response to the competition and it is clear an impressive amount of effort has gone into all the applications that have been submitted.

The full list of applicants for city status is:

Bolton

Bournemouth

Chelmsford

Colchester

Coleraine

Corby

Craigavon

Croydon

Doncaster

Dorchester

Dudley

Dumfries

Gateshead

Goole

Luton

Medway

Middlesbrough

Milton Keynes

Perth

Reading

Southend

St Asaph

St Austell

Stockport

Tower Hamlets

Wrexham

The cities applying for a lord mayoralty are:

Armagh

Cambridge

Derby

Gloucester

Lancaster

Newport (Gwent)

Peterborough

Salford

Southampton

St Albans

Sunderland

Wakefield

The process of assessing the entries will begin shortly. Careful consideration will be given to all applications, after which Ministers will formally provide their advice to Her Majesty, as such honours are awarded under the royal prerogative. The results are expected to be announced early in 2012.