Record numbers of people from poorer backgrounds are now receiving awards.

"I always had the perception that you only got an honour if you were rich or famous," says Clive Lawrence. His start in life had been free school meals and growing up on a council estate in Derbyshire, but the former head teacher has been made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE). He's part of a quiet revolution in the honours system, which has deliberately sought to make the awards less socially exclusive and to have a fairer spread of winners around the country. That change followed an analysis by the BBC last year of the New Year Honours in 2025 which showed that among higher winners - such as Commanders of the British Empire (CBE), knighthoods and damehoods - only 4% of recipients had grown up in working class backgrounds. Cabinet Office figures for the New Year Honours 2026 show that for higher awards that has now risen to 31%, a record level. Across all levels of honours at New Year 2026, 38% of recipients were from working class backgrounds, matching the national figure of 37%. These are record levels of awards for people from less wealthy backgrounds - and more than double the amount from five years ago. The gap has also narrowed in the share of awards between London and the rest of the country, according to data from the Birthday honours, published last week.