Alison Saunders has become the first former head of the Crown Prosecution Service not to receive a senior honour after her tenure was marked by a series of scandals.

The former Director of Public Prosecutions, who left her post earlier this year, has not been awarded a damehood in the New Years Honours List.

It marks a major departure from her predecessors, each of whom became a knight or a dame either during their tenure, or immediately after their departure.

Last night it was not clear whether Mrs Saunders had been snubbed by the honours committee, or if she had refused to accept her damehood. A source close to the 57-year-old refused to comment.

It comes after Ms Saunders faced heavy criticism for presiding over several rape cases that collapsed as a result of the prosecution failing to disclose evidence.

Earlier this year, two men whose lives were ruined by false rape allegations insisted that Ms Saunders should not be honoured after presiding over a “convictions at any cost culture”.

In a letter, Liam Allan, 23, and Samuel Armstrong, 25, said: “We were wronged by a justice system that was supposed to protect us,” adding that Ms Saunders “must not be rewarded for failure”.

Liam Allan, 22, has said he feels evidence is "cherry picked" credit: David Mirzoeff /PA

Under her leadership, the number of prosecutions in England and Wales that collapsed over disclosure failings increased by 70% in two years.

She was also heavily criticised for her decision not to charge the Labour peer Lord Janner with alleged child sex crimes, which was was overturned after the complainants demanded a review.

When her departure was announced in March, a Whitehall source told the Telrgraph:"It was felt a clean break was needed.”

Saunders, who was a career lawyer and only the second woman to become DPP, will take up a job as a partner with the law firm Linklaters in the New Year.

Other notable figures to miss out on top honours include tax-avoiding celebrities including David Beckham and Gary Lineker, after authorities decided to stop rewarding people with “poor tax behaviour”.

The pair are among a number of prominent figures left out of this year’s list after being found using controversial schemes to reduce their tax burden.

It comes after a memo leaked earlier this year revealed HMRC works with the honours committee to identify nominees who may cause “adverse public comment” if handed gongs.

Other tax avoiders who missed out this year include the singer Robbie Williams, former England captain Wayne Rooney, and the former footballer and charity campaigner Rio Ferdinand. It is not suggested that any of these individuals broke any laws.

The HMRC document reveals the taxman combs through the financial affairs of thousands of nominees before making recommendations to the honours committee.

“It should be clear to the public - both nomiators and potential nominees - that poor tax behaviour is not consistent with the award of an honour,” the memo states.

It continues: "Trust would likely be lost if an honour was awarded to someone with negative tax behaviours and those behaviours became linked to the positive recognition that accompanies the award of an honour."

Each candidate is labelled green if they are low risk, amber for medium risk and red for high risk. Those found to have used “avoidance schemes on serial basis” are placed in the most serious category.

The list is then returned to the Cabinet Office - and the prime minister - to make the final decision.

It is not known whether individual celebrities including Beckham were prevented from receiving top honours due to tax reasons.

But last year leaked emails suggested that the footballer believed he was on the verge of receiving a knighthood in 2013 until the taxman intervened.

David Beckham was reportedly furious when the taxman intervened to block his knighthood credit: Samir Hussein /WireImage

In one furious message Beckham was said to have called the honours committee "a bunch of c***s". In another, responding to an aide telling him the taxman had raised a flag about his financial affairs, Beckham is said to have written: “The flag has no truth behind it as we didn’t (do) nothing wrong, everything is and was above board.”

HMRC has however not stood in the way, it appears, of awards for its own staff, nine of whom receive honours.

Chief executive Jonathan Thompson is made a KCB despite presiding over a series of failures. Earlier this year HMRC was accused of “letting down self-employed people” by failing to answer four million calls to the tax helpline.

There was also a 36pc increase in the number of taxpayers taking the “aggressive” revenue to the High Court.

An HMRC spokesperson said: “Honours are given to reward outstanding service in a given field or area.

“In 2017/18, we secured a record £605 billion in revenue to pay for our hospitals, schools and other vital public services and the tax gap remains at its lowest for five years.”