HMRC has lost £47m after hack breaches the accounts of 100,000 UK taxpayer

HMRC has suffered a loss of £47 million following a phishing scam that compromised tens of thousands of tax accounts, MPs have been told.

Two high-ranking civil servants at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) informed the Treasury Committee that 100,000 Brits have been or are being contacted after their accounts were secured in what they described as an "organised crime" incident that started last year.

John-Paul Marks, the chief executive of HMRC, assured that taxpayers affected will not experience any "no financial loss". Mr Marks explained to the Committee: "It's about 0.2 per cent of the PAYE population, around 100,000 people, who we have written to, are writing to, to notify them that we detected activity on their PAYE account."

When asked if this pertained to individual workers' P