Guidance on contacting a Lord Lieutenant or Deputy Lieutenant
The Lord Lieutenant is an important non-political (and unpaid) representative of a County, helping to encourage and promote the good of the community through the voluntary and civic life of the County. It's an honorary appointment. Lord Lieutenants and their Deputy Lieutenants are among the oldest public offices.
- Formally receiving The Queen, members of the Royal Family or Heads of State when they visit their County.
- Acting on behalf of The Queen in presenting awards and honours.
- Maintaining links with the armed forces and emergency services.
- Supporting the civic life of the County, working with local councils and agencies, the emergency services, schools, charities and the voluntary sector.
- Remaining strictly neutral with respect to political matters – both locally and nationally.
Deputy Lieutenants
Lord Lieutenants have a team of Deputy Lieutenants across their area of responsibility. The number of Deputy Lieutenants depends on the population size of each County.
The general, Deputy Lieutenants:
- Are an influential body well placed to champion community effort in any County.
- Are deliberately well spread around any County geographically, and each major town and city may have a number of nominated Deputies who keep an eye on activity.
- Often deputise for the Lord Lieutenant in attending local events.
- Come from a wide range of backgrounds, skill and experience covering the areas such as different religious groups and churches, the arts, the voluntary sector, farming and the countryside, the environment, the military, the law, business, civic affairs and the universities.
- Local and specialist knowledge and experience is increasingly being used to positive effect in key sectors ranging from local government to youth services and from industry to the rural economy.
Making contact
Lord Lieutenants will have a local office in the County they represent and usually a website that explains their role and the area they represent.
There is usually a clerk or secretary who supports their day today work and who is available to answer enquiries during the day.
Find out who your Lord Lieutenant is and where their office is located with a web search.
Help with making a national honour nomination?
The role of any Lord Lieutenant or Deputy Lieutenant, in addition to representing Her Majesty the Queen, is to understand and support local community activity. This includes recognising the good work of the community and, particularly in the case of a Deputy Lieutenant, provide support and guidance for any local national honour nominations.
If you're in the process of completing a national honour nomination for a member of the Scouts, making contact with your local Deputy Lieutenant will definitely make this easier.
- Make contact with a Lord Lieutenant’s office or known Deputy Lieutenant.
- Prepare some background information on the nominee to share with them.
- Provide them with an overview of the nomination you want to make.
- Possibly invite them to a Scout event to help them better understand the work that Scouts does in the community.
- Consider inviting them to be an adviser to your Local Awards Advisory Group.