Historic County Flags Day 2025

That this House celebrates Historic County Flags Day on Wednesday 23 July 2025; expresses immense pride in seeing the flag of each and every historic county flown in Parliament Square this week to mark the occasion; recognises that the historic counties of the UK continue to play an important part of the history, geography and cultural life of the nation; acknowledges that the UK requires a fixed general-purpose geographical framework which is divorced from the ever-changing local government administrative boundaries, instead being rooted in history, public understanding and commonly held notions of city, town, village and local identity that belong within one county, as a distinct part of the nation; believes that the historic counties are the only choice for such a geographical framework; and therefore calls on the Government to direct the Ordnance Survey to properly mark the boundaries of the historic counties on its maps, to produce regulations which will ensure that the boundaries of all the historic counties are clearly marked by appropriate boundary signs at places where they cross major highways, to amend local government terminology so that the word county, as it applies to local government areas, is no longer used to end the confusion and that the ceremonial office of Lord Lieutenant is restored to areas defined by the historic counties.