Phone hacking: Home affairs committee continues with inquiry

The commons home affairs committee will continue to pursue its inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal, despite already publishing its report on the matter.

Chairman of the select committee Keith Vaz announced this week that the inquiry had heard evidence which had "raised significant questions".

"We must ensure all avenues of inquiry are followed through," he added.

This has included requests for more information from law firm Harbottle and Lewis.

Earlier this month, News Corporation confirmed that Harbottle & Lewis had been authorised to respond to questions from the Metropolitan police and select committees on the phone-hacking case.

This followed the questioning of News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch, his son James and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks by MPs in the culture, media and sport committee, about a file of emails which were said to form part of a phone-hacking related review by Harbottle & Lewis.

Giving evidence, Brooks said the contents of the file "put a new light" on information in the case later on.

In a letter to the home affairs committee, which has also sent to chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee John Whittingdale, the law firm said "we believe we are free to explain the position in general terms, without commenting on all the circumstances in question".

"As a matter of practicality, as we explained in our letter to Mr Whittingdale, the file in question had been closed and archived.

"As a matter of legal theory, even if the file had been under active consideration, it would have been as serious breach of professional ethics for this firm to have disclosed its contents to any third party.

"Confidential documents supplied by a client to his solicitor for the purpose of taking legal advice cannot be disclosed by the solicitor to third parties, including the police, unless the solicitor is either compelled to do so or has the permission of his client."

Responding to the letter, Vaz called on the law firm to give more details on the advice provided to News International and the emails in question.

Vaz has also written to director of public prosecutions (DPP) Keir Starmer and former DPP Lord Macdonald "asking what conversations they had and advice they were given by the Attorney General during the investigation in 2006-07 and re-examining of the material in 2009".

The committee has also approached Baroness Scotland and Lord Goldsmith asking for details on any advice they gave on the matter, as former Attorney Generals.

Correspondence between Vaz and Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs at the Metropolitan police, about work carried out by his son at News International, has also been published this week.

Fedorcio explained his son was only ever on work experience at News International title the Sun, on two occasions.

The committee has also requested IT services company HCL Technologies answer questions about its dealings with News International and whether it ever held emails, and had deletions requested, on behalf of the company.

In its report on the inquiry, published last week after hearing evidence from a range of Metropolitan police figures, the committee accused News International of attempting to "deliberately thwart" the original investigation into phone hacking.

It also claimed police "set aside a huge amount of material that could have identified other perpetrators and victims".

It is understood there are currently no plans for the committee to make a further report on the matter.

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