The new head of the Serious Organised Crime Agency has been forced to defend himself against suggestions that he was a “Yes, Minister” appointment lacking the law enforcement credentials needed to run “Britain’s FBI”.

Sir Ian Andrews, a career civil servant with no experience of policing, was recruited in July to replace Sir Stephen Lander, the former boss of the Security Service, MI5, who was the hands-on chairman of Soca since its creation in 2006.