The check flights I have seen using a PPL are only paper exercises if someone has gone out of the club rules not the CAA ones.
And they are only given if the FI is busy and the person being checked is a known good pilot who regularly flys but for some reason is a couple of days out. The PPL's who did them were all old salts who went solo before i was born.
Known twats don't get this option.
MJ