Prominent singer wins highest accolade in new year honours list

More than 1,000 celebrities, government employees and politicians who received honours in the new year list have had their home and work addresses posted on a government website, the Guardian can reveal. The accidental disclosure of a tranche of personal details of those being celebrated for their service to British society is likely to be considered a major security breach, particularly as senior police and ministry of defence (MoD) staff were among those whose potentially sensitive addresses were made public. Many of the more than a dozen MoD employees and senior counter-terrorism officers who received honours had their home addresses revealed, along with countless others who may believe the disclosure has put them in a vulnerable position. Prominent public figures including the musician Elton John, the cricketer Ben Stokes, National Health Service (NHS) England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, the politicians Iain Duncan Smith and Diana Johnson, and the former director of public prosecutions Alison

Saunders were among those whose home addresses were published. Others included Jonathan Jones, the permanent secretary of the government’s legal department, and John Manzoni, the Cabinet Office permanent secretary. A member of the public contacted the Guardian after downloading a spreadsheet from the website where the 2020 new year honours list was posted. It is thought the document seen by the Guardian, which contains the details of 1,097 people, went online at 10.30pm on Friday and was taken down in the early hours of yesterday. A number of MoD staff who had been named publicly in the honours list did have their addresses redacted. However, the vast majority of people had their house numbers, street names and postcodes included. The honours list was drawn up and approved during Theresa May’s premiership. – By Mattha Busby and Owen Bowcott/Guardian News & Media