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The PAC warned of a "gap in accountability to parliament" over the money lent to rugby union, due to "a conflict of interest" involving a senior civil servant's connections with the sport.

Last month, government officials defended the loans to professional rugby union clubs.

However in its report, the PAC says that Storey has "a conflict of interest regarding rugby union", because her husband Pev Hooper is on the board of Premiership Rugby, and is also a director at CVC Capital Partners - a major investor in the sport.

"However, the department is most heavily exposed to rugby union in terms of both the amount of loans it has made and the financial health of the sport. The conflict of interest meant that we could not question the Permanent Secretary directly about the £124m that the department had loaned to top-tier rugby union clubs and its subsequent management of these loans."

"When the department did provide us with more information, it was clear to us that it has been less engaged with basketball than with professional rugby union."