More police set to join hacking and payments investigations

The Metropolitan police is planning to assign more police officers to its investigations into alleged newspaper phone and computer hacking and payments to public officials.

London's deputy mayor for policing and crime, Kit Malthouse, told the Leveson inquiry today that 200 people were forecast to be working on the operations over the next year.

This compares with the 170 quoted by Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers at the Leveson inquiry last month - 90 staff on Operation Weeting (phone hacking), 60 on Elveden (payments) and about 20 on Tuleta (computer hacking).

Malthouse told the inquiry today: "That is a very significant undertaking. 200 people is eight murder squads and I have to make sure that it is balanced appropriately."

Operation Elveden, which began in June last year, is looking at alleged payments by the media to police officers and other public officials.

Operating Weeting, investigating phone hacking, started in January 2011, and Operation Tuleta, looking at computer data interception, began last autumn.

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