Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- James Dyson, inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, and Michael Rake, chairman of KPMG International, were granted knighthoods in Britain's New Year's Honors List, which also awards medals to the singer Rod Stewart and soccer player Steven Gerrard.

The 971 people named will also get the right to wear a new lapel badge announced today, which is intended to mark out those who have been recognized for their contribution to society. The pink-and-gray emblem will be available to all the 120,000 living recipients of British honors.

``These new emblems are a visible sign of a person's accomplishments, and I hope that many will choose to wear them with pride,'' said Gus O'Donnell, the civil servant who as Cabinet Secretary oversees honors. ``This is an important step in increasing awareness and understanding of the honors system.''

That system has been under scrutiny this year, with the police investigating whether Prime Minister Tony Blair was selling places in the upper House of Lords. Four men who had loaned the ruling Labour Party money were later nominated for seats in the chamber. Blair has stepped back from any involvement in honors since the investigation began in March.

Since 1997, everyone who has donated more than 1 million pounds ($2.0 million) to Labour has been made either a knight or a member of the House of Lords, according to the Power Inquiry, a probe into changes in U.K. democracy funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, a Quaker charity campaigning for social justice. The report was published in February.

Queen's Honor

The honors are bestowed in the name of Queen Elizabeth II and are recommended by a panel that considers suggestions from government departments and political parties as well as from members of the public, who were responsible for 46 percent of the nominations for this list.

Women make up 40 percent of this year's list, up from 37 percent last year. Recipients of knighthoods have the right to put ``Sir'' or ``Dame'' in front of their names. People getting other honors can put the initials after their names.

Dyson, 59, is the founder of Dyson Appliances Ltd., most famous for its bagless vacuum cleaner, which has won awards including the European Design Prize and has been exhibited in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the London Science Museum. It took Dyson five years and 5,127 prototypes to create his first machine.

`Export Success'

``It's a great honor, and really, not just for me, but for the 1,500 people who work with me,'' Dyson said in a statement. ``I invented the original machine and still work in the labs, but I couldn't have turned Dyson into the export success it is without them.''

Among the figures from London's financial community rewarded today are James Hart, the former Commissioner of the City of London Police, who was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and David Brewer, the former Lord Mayor of London, who was made a knight.

Rake, 58, was senior partner and U.K. chairman of KPMG International for eight years until October. He has been chairman of the international board since 2002.

He is also a member of Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's High-Level City Group, which advises on relations between government and the financial services industry. He has helped to shaped new standards for accountancy following the Enron scandal. In a statement, he said he was ``proud and delighted.''

Executives Knighted

Other businessmen knighted today are Philip Hampton, chairman of the supermarket chain J Sainsbury Plc; Kevin Smith, chief executive of the aircraft parts maker GKN Plc; and David Murray, chairman and founder of Murray International Holdings, as well as chairman of Rangers Football Club Plc.

John Scarlett, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, was knighted, as is traditional for anyone holding his post. Scarlett, in his previous role as chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, signed off on a dossier on Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction that formed part of the U.K.'s case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The dossier included the claim that Iraq had weapons ready to fire within 45 minutes. No weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.

Mark Malloch Brown, the outgoing deputy secretary-general of the Untied Nations, is also knighted.

In the field of the arts there are CBEs for Stewart as well as film director Peter Greenaway; Alexander McCall Smith, the author of the ``No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency'' books; and Penelope Keith, the star of the television sitcoms ``The Good Life'' and ``To The Manor Born.''

Hugh Laurie, the British star of the U.S. medical drama ``House'' is named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Johnny Briggs, who plays Mike Baldwin in the long- running British soap opera ``Coronation Street,'' is a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

In sport, Gerrard is named an MBE, as is Zara Phillips, the Queen's granddaughter and 11th in line to the throne, a horsewoman who won the Individual Three-Day Event World Championship this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 29, 2006 19:14 EST