Q: Will using a professional service affect my chances?

“I reviewed the nomination form, and it asks if I’ve used a professional service: will using you affect my chances?”

It’s entirely up to the nominator whether they choose to tick the box. The Cabinet Office says it’s included for monitoring purposes only and it makes no difference to the outcome of the nomination. If they didn’t want people getting professional help, they would simply say it’s not allowed. The CO were recently asked by the Daily Mail (a national newspaper) how many nominators tick the box and their reply was that they don’t know as they have never added it up! So, the short answer is, they are not even monitoring it now.