The Right Honourable - Entitlement

Entitlement

The following persons are entitled to the prefix in a personal capacity:

• Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and the Privy Council of Northern Ireland.
  • Privy Counsellors are appointed for life by the Monarch, on the advice of the Prime Minister. Conventionally, all members of the Cabinet (which is technically a committee of the Privy Council) are appointed, as well as some other senior ministers in the government and opposition leaders. The Privy Council of the day will thus include all current and former members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, with the exception of those who have resigned from the Privy Council. The First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also entitled.
  • In order to differentiate peers who are Privy Counsellors from those who are not, sometimes the suffix PC is added to the title.
• Barons (including life peers), viscounts and earls, and their wives.
  • Marquesses are "The Most Honourable", and dukes are "The Most Noble" or "His Grace", and, if Privy Counsellors, retain these higher styles. Scottish feudal barons and lairds are "The Much Honoured".

In addition, some people are entitled to the prefix in an official capacity, i.e. the prefix is added to the name of the office, not the name of the person:

• The Lords Mayor of London, Cardiff, Belfast and York; and of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and Hobart; and
  • The Lord Mayor of Bristol uses the prefix without official sanction.
• The Lords Provost of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
  • All other Lords Mayor are "The Right Worshipful"; other Lords Provost do not use an honorific.
• The holders of certain offices in Canada—including the Governor General, Prime Minister and Chief Justice—and in New Zealand—including the Governor General, Prime Minister and Speaker of the House.
• The Chairman of the London County Council (LCC) was granted the style in 1935 as part of the celebrations of the silver jubilee of George V. The Chairman of the Greater London Council, the body that replaced the LCC in 1965, was similarly granted the prefix. The office was abolished in 1986.