Image: Bradley Wiggins was awarded a CBE in 2009

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that Olympians and Paralympians will get their own honours list this year.

The move means that athletes will be recognised separately to the traditional New Year's honours, which hands out a pre-determined amount of awards.

The limited number of available honours and the unprecedented success of Team GB athletes during the 2012 Games - 29 gold medals in the Olympics and 31 (and counting) in the Paralympics) - prompted senior civil servant Jonathan Stephens last month to announce that a medal would not mean an "automatic gong".

Stephens' comments were followed by a report by the Public Administration Select Committee, which recommended ending the practice of awarding honours to sports personalities for "doing the day job".

In response, Sport and Recreation Alliance (SRA) chair Andy Reed called on the government to make sure there wasn't a decrease in the amount of honours for sports people.

Those fears now seem to have been allayed as the move will ensure that there is no restriction on the number of honours.