The four firms are part of a group of 19 businesses which are soon to be investigated, despite their files having been laid almost unopened for seven years. The files were neglected while police officers from the now-disbanded Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) focused their attention on newspapers which were accused of using rogue private detectives to hack into mobile phones of celebrities.

A merry-go-round

At the Home Affairs Select Committee this week, it was revealed that SOCA officers may be asked to pick up the investigations at a new body, the newly-formed National Crime Agency (NCA). Keith Vaz MP, chair of the Select Committee, is quoted in The Independent as saying to Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham: 'Let me just get this straight. You are going back to the NCA to help with this investigation, when this whole thing started with SOCA – which is now the National Crime Agency. I am baffled. Had this started by SOCA earlier...you wouldn’t have to now be going back to the very people who gave you the files in the first place. It sounds like a bit of a merry-go-round.' Mr Graham is involved in leading and co-ordinating the investigations.

The Committee has held off from publishing the names of about 20 law firms which had contact with the rogue private detectives. Most of the law firms involved are not being accused of any incorrect behaviour.