News media phone hacking scandal evidence seized from Mulcaire back in August 2006. By mid-year, five people were arrested, including senior journalists from "News of the World". In June 2011, the long-ignored issue of computer hacking was addressed by the launching of . Having failed thus far to put the phone hacking issue to rest, News International's law firm, Hickman & Rose, now hired former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald to review the emails that News International executives had used as the basis of their claim that no one at "News of the World" but Clive Goodman had been involved in phone hacking. Macdonald
Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal investigations about the diligence of its probes and possible involvement of its own personnel in illegal activities. After the scope of the phone hacking scandal became generally known in July 2011, the top two officials of the Met resigned. The new Met leadership augmented the ongoing investigations with the unusual measure of bringing in an independent police organization to help. By mid-July 2011, there were as many as ten separate investigations active at the Met, Parliament and other government agencies. From at least the 1990s, private investigator Jonathan Rees reportedly bought information from former and serving police officers, customs officers,