The Audit, Governance and Standards (Civic Awards) Sub-Committee is scheduled to meet to discuss nominations for this year's Southwark Civic Awards. The meeting report pack also includes previously agreed minutes from the committee's meeting on 4 March 2024 and details the arrangements for the 2025 Civic Awards ceremony.

Civic Awards 2025

This year's Civic Awards ceremony is scheduled to be held at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday 17 May 2025.

The agenda includes a report on nominations received for the 2025 Southwark Civic Awards. The report notes that

details of all eligible nominees, including a single nomination for the Mayor’s Discretionary Award, if any, will be presented to the Audit, Governance and Standards (Civic Awards) Sub-Committee in a closed report.

The closed report, which is not publicly available, will be considered by the committee and may include a recommendation to grant awards. The report notes that

The granting of awards is a constitutional function of audit, governance and standards (civic awards) sub-committee and members have the final discretion whether or not to grant an award.

The Civic Awards are the most prestigious awards that Southwark Council can make, aside from the rarely awarded Honorary Freedom of Southwark. They were initiated in 1997 to recognise exceptional contributions to community life in the borough.

This year's awards will include:

• The Liberty of the Old Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey
• The Liberty of the Old Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell
• The Liberty of the Old Metropolitan Borough of Southwark
• The Young Citizen of the Year Award
• Southwark Together Award
• The Climate Champion Award
• The Mayor’s Discretionary Award

The report notes that:

Members need to be satisfied that the nominations meet the published set of eligibility, expectations, and exclusions before granting awards.

The published criteria are included in the report pack.

The report pack also asks the committee to delegate authority to the Assistant Chief Executive – Governance and Assurance to carry out financial and legal checks on nominees regarding any outstanding debt to the council before any awards are granted.

Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2024

The report pack includes the previously agreed minutes of the meeting of this committee held on 4 March 2024.

Those minutes show that the committee discussed possible changes to the rules governing future nominations for Civic Awards. The minutes note that it was:

RESOLVED:

1. That the rules governing the nominations for civic awards be amended for future nomination processes to include the following:
   • That posthumous nominations be permitted provided that the nominee has passed away in the 12 months before the date of the sub-committee meeting making the decision on the civic awards, and that the work or project they are nominated for also took place in the last 12 months.
   • That, going forward, once an organisation has received a civic award, no employee or volunteer from this organisation will be considered for an individual civic award while they are associated with that organisation.

The minutes also record that the committee considered a closed report on nominations for the 2024 Civic Awards, which was not publicly available, and that decisions were made in a closed session.