MPs recalled to debate hacking
The House of Commons has been recalled from its summer recess for an emergency debate on phone hacking today.
Prime minister David Cameron is expected to make a statement on the issue ahead of a debate, which comes on what would have been the first day of the summer break for MPs.
As the Commons was not due to be sitting, ministers had to formally ask Speaker John Bercow to recall the House ahead of the start of recess on Tuesday evening.
Cameron has been briefed on the evidence given to Commons committees on Tuesday by News Corporation's Rupert and James Murdoch and Rebkah Brooks as well as former Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates who both resigned from Scotland Yard this week.
In his statement to MPs, the prime minister is expected to announce the names of the panel that will look at press regulation and the final terms of reference for the judicial inquiry he has set up and to explain efforts to be more transparent about meetings with newspaper executives.
A report released today from the Commons home affairs committee accused Scotland Yard of "a catalogue of failures" over the phone hacking investigation.
The last time the Commons was recalled was in 2002, when parliamentarians returned in September to debate Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.
However, the upper chamber was already scheduled to sit today due to a backlog of legislation.
In the Lords, peers will set questions to the government on encouraging and supporting theatre within the regions, the number of representations from the public in response to the House of Lords Reform draft Bill, a public inquiry into the practices and ethics of News International and media organisations and UK aid and the suspension of general budget support for Malawi.
The upper chamber will then consider the Localism Bill at committee stage before moving onto the third reading of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill.
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