Olympians And Paralympians To Get Their Own Honours List

Britain’s Olympians and Paralympians are to get their own honours list, rather than simply being included in the New Year’s Honours.

David Cameron has decided to place awards arising from the London 2012 Games outside the usual system.

The move is to enable the list to reflect the scale of achievement by British athletes.

Under normal Whitehall rules, there is one knighthood for a sports person, with four CBEs, 68 OBEs and 134 MBEs.

But the 29 gold medals at the London games and more than 100 medals so far at the Paralympics have raised expectations that champions such as Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Sarah Storey and Ellie Simmonds will be recognised.

Johnnie Peacock who won the T44 100m said he was pleased by the prime minister’s decision.

Mr Peacock said: “That is good news. It’s good to hear that he’s obviously supporting everything and you know this country really has pushed the Olympics and Paralympics and they really are getting behind everyone so it’s great to see the support that even he’s given.”

Dame Tessa Jowell, the former Labour Olympics minister, has also welcomed the decision by Mr Cameron.

Speculation that Britain’s Olympic heroes would miss out on honours was triggered last month by a senior civil servant, Jonathan Stephens, who told the BBC medals would not mean an “automatic gong”.

Honours are awarded for exceptional achievement or service, twice every year – at New Year, and in mid-June – and are decided by a Whitehall committee and not the government.

The sport committee, which is chaired by Olympic chief Lord Coe, is strictly limited as to the number of gongs it can award per year.

Baroness Grey-Thompson – herself an 11 time paralympic gold medallist – and sits on the sporting honours committee previously told the BBC that they were able to award “one or two” knighthoods, a “few more” CBEs, “more” OBEs and “up to 45-50 MBEs”.

By giving Olympic and Paralympic athletes their own honours list Downing Street can ensure that there is no limit on the number of awards handed out.