REVENUE officials have stopped around 150 public figures getting state honours because of tax avoidance or evasion, it was reported today.

They are among thousands of candidates for gongs to have been vetted by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to check their finances are above board, The Sunday Times reported.

HMRC has been alerting the Cabinet Office to individuals involved in controversial tax schemes, in a process which sees a low, medium, or high-risk rating assigned to prospective nominees “to minimise the risk that [they] have behaved in ways likely to bring the system into disrepute,” it was revealed last month.

Figures from a freedom on information request found that up to 43 people recommended for an honour have been flagged red, or high-risk, since January 2013.

Red warnings are assigned to those who use avoidance schemes on a “serial basis,” are under criminal investigation for tax fraud or are involved in “offshore evasion,” the paper said.

Meanwhile, a further 120 people were said to have been given an amber, or medium-risk, rating. The amber category included people “participating in one or more avoidance schemes.”