MPs set to question police over phone-hacking inquiry

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, Andy Hayman and Peter Clarke will appear before the Home Affairs Committee.

MPs are expected to ask them why the initial investigation, started in 2005, failed to uncover evidence of hacking of crime victims' voicemail messages.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers will also appear before the committee. She is leading the current investigation into phone hacking, Operation Weeting.

Detectives are contacting nearly 4,000 people whose personal details were stored by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

The committee is expected to ask former Assistant Commissioners Mr Hayman and Mr Clarke, the officers who supervised the original police inquiry, why that information was apparently overlooked.

MPs want to know if the decision to close the investigation after Mulcaire and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman were jailed in 2007 for phone hacking was influenced by Scotland Yard's desire to maintain good relations with News International.

Assistant Commissioner Yates refused to reopen the inquiry in 2009.

He has said the scope of the first inquiry was restricted because of legal advice from prosecutors, lack of co-operation from those at the newspaper and the need to target resources towards counter-terrorism.

Victims of crime who had their voicemail messages hacked into include murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron's former press secretary George Eustice has said he does not have confidence in Assistant Commissioner Yates.

On Monday, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was said to be "shocked" after it was alleged the Sunday Times targeted his personal information when he was chancellor.

Documents and a phone recording suggest "blagging" was used to obtain private financial and property details.

The blagging reports concern alleged attempts by someone said to be acting for the Sunday Times who posed as Brown and obtained details of his Abbey National account in January 2000.

Brown and his wife Sarah also fear medical records relating to their son Fraser, whom the Sun revealed in 2006 had cystic fibrosis, may have been obtained.

News International, which publishes the Sunday Times and the Sun, said it would investigate the claims.

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said if the allegations were true, the implications for Rupert Murdoch's empire could be huge.

"If this is going right across News Corporation, there is a real problem for Mr Murdoch for he has to pass the fit and proper test as a person to own a broadcasting organisation like Sky.

"And if he doesn't pass that, it's not a question of just stopping the BSkyB deal, it will be a question of him getting rid of Sky altogether."

Blagging, or "knowingly or recklessly obtaining or disclosing personal data or information without the consent of the data controller" has been illegal since 1994.

Addressing MPs in the the Commons, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt described blagging as an "awful" practice.

He said the judge-led inquiry into phone-hacking would look at all illegal methods newspapers may have used in the past to obtain information.

Evidence has been found suggesting a News of the World reporter tried to buy a phone book containing numbers of the Royal Family.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall may have also been targets of phone-hacking conducted at the News of the World, according to the Guardian.