Rod and Zara top New Year Honours

Zara Phillips was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2006

Singer Rod Stewart and equestrian gold medallist Zara Phillips are among those recognised in the New Year Honours.

The Queen's granddaughter is made an MBE for her sporting success, while Stewart's CBE is for services to music.

Vacuum cleaner entrepreneur James Dyson and MI6 chief John Scarlett are knighted and virtuoso percussionist Evelyn Glennie becomes a dame.

Golf's Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam and former Coronation Street actor Johnny Briggs are made MBEs.

Stewart, 61, one of the biggest-selling British artists of all time in a career spanning five decades, said he was "overjoyed".

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"Although I'm living in California, I'm very proud to be British," he said.

"We will be celebrating the good news later today."

Princess Anne's daughter Phillips, who is 11th in line to the throne, appears on the list at the end of an eventful 2006 in which she also took the European equestrian title and was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

"I'm honoured I've been recognised for my achievements in equestrianism and pleased British Eventing nominated me," she said.

"I'm delighted for the sport."

New badge

A knighthood was awarded to John Scarlett, chief of MI6.

He was formerly chairman of the government's Joint Intelligence Committee and his evidence during the 2002 Hutton inquiry into the death of weapons scientist Dr David Kelly gave crucial support to the government's case.

There are also knighthoods for blind jazz pianist George Shearing, biographer Michael Holroyd and Rangers football club chairman David Murray, while Daily Mail reporter Ann Leslie is made a dame.

Some 120,000 people will be entitled to wear the new emblem

Hugh Laurie (OBE) and Penelope Keith (CBE) join other stars of the stage and screen on the list.

Boxer Ricky Hatton and former BBC tennis commentator John Barrett are made MBEs, as is Liverpool and England footballer Steven Gerrard.

Among the less well-known people to be recognised are John Grey, 80, a shoeshiner for Virgin Atlantic airline customers at Heathrow, former East Lothian milkman George Beal and Norfolk teaching assistant Susan Wade, who all become MBEs.

Virgin Atlantic's chief executive, Steve Ridgway, who himself is made a CBE for services to civil aviation, said: "Of the two of us, I suspect John has been more influential in helping to look after our passengers."

The Cabinet Office said 46% of those on the New Year list had been nominated or supported by members of the public.

All past and future recipients will now be able to apply for a new buttonhole badge.

There are said to be around 120,000 people currently eligible to wear the emblem, which will be made available to buy for £15.

999 bikes

Colin Cramphorn, the former chief constable of West Yorkshire and acting head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland who died last month, becomes a CBE - an honour he accepted before he passed away.

The honour also goes to No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency novelist Alexander McCall Smith.

Shoeshiner John Grey and his boss celebrate their honours

There are CBEs too for film-maker Peter Greenaway, composer John Rutter and fashion designer Margaret Howell.

Sally Greene, the theatre impresario credited with saving London's Old Vic, and yachtsman Michael Golding, who rescued a rival in the recent solo Five Oceans round-the-world race, become OBEs.

Roy Wilsher, Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service's chief officer who played a key role in operations surrounding the Buncefield oil storage terminal disaster in December 2005, is made an OBE.

New Look fashion chain founder Tom Singh, Linda Bennett, who set up the LK Bennett clothes stores, and Football Association spokesman David Davis will also be picking up the same honour at a future Buckingham Palace investiture.

Paramedic and former BMX champion Tom Lynch is made an MBE for services to London Ambulance Services. He devised the idea of responding to 999 calls by bike.

And an MBE goes to BBC foreign correspondent Brian Barron, who has reported on major stories for more than 40 years, including the Vietnam war and the Falklands conflict.

Bernard Matthews, the Norfolk turkey farmer who is already a CBE, becomes a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for services to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.