Dr Sue Griffiths, a member of the parliamentary and political service honours committee, stressed that the 10 per cent target “is a figure we are continually seeking to improve.
Officials have noted an expectation that reviewing new census data would form part of future representation work for the independent diversity committee.
This year’s list included 1,077 recipients of honours, of whom 4.6 per cent are Asian, 3 per cent are black, 1.6 per cent have a mixed ethnicity and 0.4 per cent come from “another” ethnic background.
Among the recipients this year is the UK’s first openly gay Sikh, south Asian police officer, who has campaigned to improve social cohesion and integration for LGBTQ south Asians.
Lakhbir Singh Mann, a 49-year-old Metropolitan Police officer, is being made an MBE after founding an umbrella collective of artists, activists, charities, and organisations, titled Gaysians, which soon became a national platform to mainstream South Asian LGBTQ+ visibility.
He has spent more than a decade effecting social change nationally through his work with South Asian Heritage Month and other organisations in improving social cohesion and integration.