Reformed honours list to be more inclusive

The New Year Honours will reward more women, members of the ethnic minorities and those from the north of England, following an admission that past attempts at modernising the "gongs" system have failed.

The Prime Minister, who is keen to rebuild confidence in the honours system because of the "cash for peerages" scandal, has told the committees drawing up this year's list to make sure they are more representative.

Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, wrote to the honours committees earlier this year to warn that there appeared to be "insufficient meritorious candidates" from the north of England, the retail and service sectors, women in industry, and ethnic minority groups. He also made it clear that Mr Blair wants to end the award of medals for "Buggins' turn", given for long service.

The list is certain to include the usual list of senior civil servants, but it has been revealed that it will also be spiced up by the inclusion of Bono, with an honorary knighthood for his work on tackling G8 targets on poverty in Africa, and the Queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, winner of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, who is appointed an OBE for her individual World Equestrian Games gold medal.

Public support for the system was undermined when leaks from the selection committees' minutes in 2003 showed that Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of the Medical Research Council, was blocked because his support for animal testing was regarded as too controversial. The leaks also revealed a secret list of 300 prominent nominees who have turned down honours.

Sir Hayden Phillips, who was charged with investigating the funding of political parties, and the Commons Select Committee on public administration, both recommended more awards for ethnic minorities. The Government accepted some recommendations in 2004 but rejected scrapping "imperialist" awards such as the British Empire Medal and replacing it with the Order of British Excellence. The scrapping of knighthoods and damehoods was also ruled out.

On 23 March this year, Mr Blair announced he would no longer exercise his right to nominate individuals, but retained the right to nominate supporters for a list of "working peers". That right led to the "cash for peerages" row, when some nominees made public protests after subsequently being declined for honours. It was later learned they had given secret loans to Labour.