The wealth unit, which has around 500 HMRC staff, holds a wide range of criminal and civil powers but reserves criminal processes for its most serious investigations.

As part of HMRC’s fraud investigation service, the wealth unit was set up in the wake of the Panama Papers leak in 2016 to investigate serious non-compliance by businesses and the wealthiest taxpayers.

Over the past decade, HMRC’s approach to economic crime enforcement has evolved to focus on the largest and most complex cases of tax fraud with 25 open cases looking into major risks of tax evasion.

According to HMRC, in 2009/10 the tax authority undertook just 156 prosecutions, protecting approximately £150m in tax revenue.

This number had risen substantially by 2019/20, with prosecutions jumping to 573, with around £5bn of revenue protected.