You cannot apply for a knighthood in the UK, and you cannot buy one. To get a knighthood in the United Kingdom, someone has to nominate you to the Cabinet Office honours system for sustained, exceptional contribution to national life; an independent committee then vets the nomination, the Prime Minister forwards the recommendation to the King, and if you accept the offer you are dubbed at a formal investiture. The whole process runs at least twelve to eighteen months from nomination to ceremony.1UK Honours System. Nomination Guidance
Who Can Be Nominated
Any British citizen, or citizen of the fifteen Commonwealth realms where the King is head of state, can be put forward.2The Gazette. Everything You Need to Know About Nominating Someone for a UK Honour The nominee must still be actively involved in the work being recognized at the time of nomination. Listing job titles is not enough; the case has to show real, describable impact.1UK Honours System. Nomination Guidance
Foreign nationals can receive honorary knighthoods for contributions to the relationship between their country and the UK, but they are not dubbed and cannot use “Sir” or “Dame.” If an honorary recipient later becomes a British citizen, they can apply to convert the award into a full, substantive knighthood.3The Gazette. American Citizens With Honorary British Knighthoods and Damehoods
One rule surprises people: honours cannot be awarded posthumously. If a nominee dies during the process, the nomination stops, and nominators are expected to notify the Honours Secretariat immediately.1UK Honours System. Nomination Guidance
How a Nomination Is Made
Anyone can nominate. You do not need to hold any office, and there is no fee. The form lives on the government’s honours website and asks for a detailed account of what the nominee has done and why it matters.1UK Honours System. Nomination Guidance
Every nomination has to include at least two supporting letters from people who know the nominee personally and can speak to the work. There is no submission deadline. The whole process is confidential, and the person you nominate is not told.
What Happens After You Submit
Nominations are routed to one of ten independent honours committees covering fields such as arts and media, health, education, science, sport, and public service. Each committee has an independent chair and a majority of independent members. Senior civil servants attend as official members, and a representative from 10 Downing Street sits in on meetings.4UK Honours System. Governance
Alongside the committee’s assessment, several government departments run background checks. HM Revenue and Customs rates each candidate’s tax affairs as low, medium, or high risk, and that rating feeds into the final decision on whether to recommend the honour.5GOV.UK. Honours Nominations Probity and Propriety Checks Completed by HMRC
Once each committee has made its picks, a Main Honours Committee chaired by an appointee of the Cabinet Secretary and composed of all ten committee chairs agrees a final list. That list goes to the Prime Minister, who advises the Sovereign. Successful names are then published on one of two fixed dates each year: the New Year Honours list in late December, and the King’s Birthday Honours list in June.6The Gazette. The New Year Honours List 2026
The Offer Letter and the Right to Decline
Before any name goes public, the approved recipient receives a letter asking whether they accept. This is the point at which someone can say no, without giving a reason, and nothing about them will be published. Around twenty-five people decline per awards round.7House of Commons Library. Honours Refusal and Removal
The Investiture
After the announcement in The Gazette and on the government website, the recipient is invited to an investiture ceremony.8UK Honours System. Receiving an Honour Ceremonies are held at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. Around thirty take place each year, with over sixty recipients at each one. The King conducts many personally, though senior members of the Royal Family such as the Prince of Wales or the Princess Royal also officiate.9The Royal Family. Investitures
For men receiving a knighthood, the central moment is the dubbing. The knight-elect kneels on the right knee on a knighting stool, and the King lays a bare sword blade on the right shoulder, then the left, before presenting the insignia. Women receiving a damehood are not dubbed with the sword and receive the insignia directly. Clergy are also not dubbed, as the use of a sword is considered inappropriate for their calling, and they do not use the title “Sir.”10The Royal Family. Knighthoods and Damehoods
One thing worth knowing before you picture the moment: the phrase “Arise, Sir…” is never actually used. That line belongs to films, not to Buckingham Palace.10The Royal Family. Knighthoods and Damehoods
Routes That Do Not Go Through Nomination
Not every knighthood travels the committee route. A handful of orders sit entirely outside the government process. The Order of the Garter, England’s most senior chivalric order, is limited to twenty-four living knights chosen personally by the King in recognition of public service or contributions to national life.11The Royal Family. The Order of the Garter Its Scottish counterpart, the Order of the Thistle, is limited to sixteen knights, also entirely within the Sovereign’s personal gift.12The Royal Family. The Order of the Thistle No prime minister, committee, or department has any say in either.
Some knighthoods also come attached to an office. High Court judges are knighted when they take the bench, making them the only officeholders who still routinely receive the honour as part of starting a job.
Everyone else who becomes a knight or dame comes through the nomination system, either as a Knight Bachelor, which is the oldest standalone form of knighthood and confers “Sir” but no post-nominal letters, or through the top two ranks of an order of chivalry such as the Order of the British Empire (KBE or DBE, and GBE), the Order of the Bath, or the Royal Victorian Order.13UK Honours System. Orders, Decorations and Medals There is no direct female equivalent of Knight Bachelor; women who merit the same level of recognition are typically appointed DBE instead.
Keeping the Title Afterwards
A knighthood is not automatically permanent. The Forfeiture Committee, which reports to the Prime Minister, considers cases where a holder has brought the honours system into disrepute. Grounds for removal include criminal conviction, professional disbarment, and conduct that damages public confidence, whether the conduct happened before or after the award. The Committee does not investigate facts; it reviews the findings of official investigations, may invite written representations, and forwards a recommendation through the Prime Minister to the King, who formally cancels the honour.14UK Honours System. Forfeiture Because orders of chivalry are “living orders,” membership ends at death, and an honour cannot be stripped from someone who has already died.15GOV.UK. List of Individuals Who Have Forfeited Their Honour Since August 2023