Met accused of phone-hack failures

The Home Affairs Select Committee’s report, rushed out after hearing the final round of evidence from some of Britain’s top policemen on Tuesday, also said it “deplores” News International’s attempt to “deliberately thwart” the original investigation into phone hacking in 2005/2006.

But it said there was no “real will” on the part of the Metropolitan Police to overcome these obstacles and dig deeper into the scandal.

The MPs have also called on the Government to provide more funds for the Met’s latest investigation into phone hacking, Operation Weeting, so that victims can be contacted more quickly.

Committee Chairman Keith Vaz said: “There has been a catalogue of failures by the Metropolitan Police, and deliberate attempts by News International to thwart the various investigations.

“Police and prosecutors have been arguing over the interpretation of the law. The new inquiry requires additional resources and if these are not forthcoming, it will take years to inform all the potential victims. The victims of hacking should have come first and I am shocked that this has not happened.”

The victims of hacking should have come first and I am shocked that this has not happened. MP Keith Vaz

Prime Minister David Cameron will face questions from MPs later today about the phone-hacking scandal, including his party’s links with former News International figures. He is flying home early from an Africa trip to make an emergency statement to the House of Commons, which is expected to contain more information on the judge-led inquiry he has set up.

‘Very poor’ investigations

The committee had a list of criticisms of the Met’s handling of the crisis over the last few years.

It said it believed that a review of the original phone-hacking investigation in 2009, led by Assistant Commissioner John Yates – who has since resigned – was “very poor”. The review, which took just eight hours, concluded that there was nothing new to investigate. The committee agreed with Mr Yates’s recent assessment that this was a “serious misjudgement”.

It also criticised the conduct of Andy Hayman, who oversaw the original investigation, as “both unprofessional and inappropriate”. The committee said it was “very concerned” that such an individual was placed in charge of anti-terrorism policing.

It added: “We deplore the fact that Mr Hayman took a job with News International within two months of his resignation and less than two years after he was – purportedly – responsible for an investigation into employees of that company.”

The report also said that it was “shocked” by the conduct of Dick Fedorcio, head of public affairs at the Met, who hired ex-News of the World executive Neil Wallis to work for the Met in 2009. Mr Wallis was arrested over phone-hacking allegations last week.

Future recommendations

The committee, which began its investigation into phone hacking last September, said a number of steps should now be taken. It praised Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers’ decision to contact all potential victims of phone hacking by the News of the World, but said it was alarmed that so far the force had only spoken to 170 of a potential 12,800 victims.

It also called for swift investigation of claims that journalists paid police for information, to establish whether this influenced police inquiries into phone hacking.

Finally MPs suggested there should be more help for victims, extra powers for the Information Commissioner to deal with breaches of data protection, and clearer security advice for customers from mobile phone companies.