IPCC: 'serious issues' over senior Met officers' ties to media

The Independent Police Complaints Commission said today (17 August), that there are "serious issues that need to be scrutinised" in the relationship between Metropolitan police officers and the media in the wake of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

A statement issued by the IPCC today clearing four senior officers, including former commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, of misconduct during the Met's phone-hacking investigations identified the force's relationship with the media as a problem.

One of those four officers, former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, who took a job as a columnist on the Times after leaving the Met, was criticised by IPCC chair Deborah Glass for his "social contacts with News International and subsequent employment by the Times".

Hayman has been cleared of misconduct, but Glass's statement acknowledged there were "serious issues that need to be scrutinised about the extent of contact between senior police officers and the media".

Hayman was also criticised last month by Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, who said it was "unwise" of the former assistant commissioner to dine repeatedly with News International staff during the Met's investigation into phone hacking at the publisher.

Hayman told the home affairs select committee that the dinners were "businesslike", but Orde said that they were inappropriate given the context of the investigation.

Hayman appeared before the select committee during the most recent round of sessions on phone hacking, where he was grilled over his relationship with News International. The former assistant commissioner accused the committee of an "appalling display" and complained that he had been "treated like dirt".

Criticisms of the Met's relationship with News International also focused on a former News of the World executive, Neil Wallis, who was given a job as a PR officer at the Met. Wallis was later arrested over his involvement with hacking at the tabloid.

Former Met assistant commissioner John Yates, who was also cleared of misconduct today over his part in the investigation, remains under IPCC scrutiny for his alleged involvement in securing Wallis' daughter a job with the force.

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