MPs call for more information on hacking

31st March 2011

The home affairs committee has told News International to reveal how many police officers have been paid by the Sun.

Committee chair Keith Vaz has written to Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, asking for further details of how many police officers have been paid for information by the newspaper and when.

The request came after Metropolitan Police acting deputy commissioner John Yates told the committee that officers had begun "researching" claims made by Brooks eight years ago, but that an investigation was not underway.

Brooks was editor of the Sun in 2003, when she told the Commons culture media and sport committee that "we have paid the police for information in the past".

Vaz has also written to Yates requesting the release of legal advice which he has received on the nature of possible charges which could be brought in cases of phone-hacking.

The committee chair has asked both Brooks and Yates to reply ahead of the Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer's appearance before the committee on Tuesday.

The development coincides with a report from the cross-party standards and privileges committee that found phone hacking "could" be considered contempt of Parliament.

It concluded that hacking could be contempt if it can be shown to have interfered with the work of the Commons or obstructed a member from his or her work, as well as if it made the operation of the Commons more difficult by creating a "climate of insecurity".

And the report recommended that "only in exceptional circumstances should a hacker who has been brought before a court of law be proceeded against subsequently for contempt".

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