Tom Hayhoe, the Treasury’s covid counter fraud commissioner, has appeared before the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to answer questions on the progress of his work.

The covid tsar published a damning report last year blaming ‘weak accountability, bad quality data and poor contracting’ as primary causes of the £10.9bn fraud loss during the covid pandemic.

At Monday’s PAC hearing, Sarah Olney MP stated: ‘I had a slightly unusual experience reading your report, someone had something nice to say about HMRC. This is not a common experience on this committee,’ referencing Hayhoe’s claim that HMRC had clawed back £1.3bn in repayments.

‘I am not familiar with saying nice things either,’ Hayhoe joked.