A number of people involved with the leisure industry have been recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.

Mark Jones, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Ian McGeechan, the British Lions rugby coach, were both awarded knighthoods.

CBEs were awarded to Christopher Cohen of the International Paralympic Committee; Graham Sheffield, artistic director of the Barbican Centre, London and Penny Johnson, director of the Government Art Collection.

Peter Phillipson, chair of Merlin Entertainments, received an OBE, as did Victor Akers, manager of Arsenal Ladies’ Football Club; David Cassells of Inland Waterways Association of Ireland; Phillip Darnton, chair of Cycling England; Professor Mary Gibby of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh; Shirley Hughes, the manager of Cerebral Palsy Sport and Eva Loeffler, vice president of WheelPower.

MBEs were given to Geoffrey Challinor, curator and manager of the Anson Engine Museum in Cheshire; Heather Crouch, chair of Netball South West, Christopher Hilton, manager of Odeon Leicester Square cinema and Mohammed Aslam, executive chef and managing director of Aagrah Group of Restaurants .