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26 January 2011
Last updated at 23:59 ET
The acting head of the Metropolitan Police is likely to face questions later about the investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.
Acting commissioner Tim Godwin appears before the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday morning.
This comes a day after the force said it was launching a fresh investigation after receiving "significant new information".
There has been criticism of Scotland Yard's handling of the case.
A number of public figures have launched civil legal actions against both the newspaper and the police amid allegations the practice of phone hacking was widespread.
Politicians from both government and opposition have also demanded the police investigate.
Scotland Yard's decision to reopen the hacking investigation follows a News of the World (NoW) internal inquiry that led to the sacking of its head of news, Ian Edmondson, on Tuesday.
BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned that News International, which owns the paper, uncovered four e-mails showing that Mr Edmondson had full knowledge of illegal phone hacking. The details were passed to police.
A NoW spokeswoman confirmed Mr Edmondson's sacking, and said the paper would take "swift and decisive action when we have proof of wrongdoing".
Mr Edmondson was suspended from active duties last month after he was identified in court documents as having instructed private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to access phone messages.
Mulcaire was jailed for six months in January 2007 alongside royal editor Clive Goodman, who was sentenced to four months, for hacking into the mobile phones of royal aides.
A source at News International told the BBC: "We have decided to root out and hunt down anyone connected with this practice. We are determined to end this."
The source insisted that no other newspaper executive, present or former, was implicated in the new evidence, but BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said that may not be the case.
"I've been told by two sources that Mr Edmondson has evidence himself that might implicate other senior people at the News of the World, so clearly this has opened a whole can of worms," he said.
The new Met inquiry follows the resignation last week of Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman Andy Coulson, who said the media storm surrounding ongoing hacking claims had distracted him from his work.
Mr Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 and resigned following the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire.
However, he has always denied having any knowledge of hacking, and a source close to him has told the BBC he is not implicated in any way by the new evidence that has come to light.
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Former deputy PM John Prescott: "I just don't trust the Metropolitan Police to conduct a proper inquiry"
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who believes he may have had his phone hacked and is seeking a judicial review against the police over their handling of information, welcomed the new investigation.
He said: "It just goes to show that the Met never did a full or proper investigation in the first place and that they completely failed to follow every avenue of investigation.
"It is a scandal that it is only through the civil actions that people are bringing that the Met are being forced to act and we are beginning to see the full scale of what went on."
Meanwhile, former MP Paul Marsden has said he may take legal action against newspaper group Trinity Mirror over alleged phone hacking in 2003. The group said its journalists worked within the law.
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Acting commissioner Tim Godwin appears before the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday morning.
This comes a day after the force said it was launching a fresh investigation after receiving "significant new information".
There has been criticism of Scotland Yard's handling of the case.
A number of public figures have launched civil legal actions against both the newspaper and the police amid allegations the practice of phone hacking was widespread.
Politicians from both government and opposition have also demanded the police investigate.
Scotland Yard's decision to reopen the hacking investigation follows a News of the World (NoW) internal inquiry that led to the sacking of its head of news, Ian Edmondson, on Tuesday.
BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned that News International, which owns the paper, uncovered four e-mails showing that Mr Edmondson had full knowledge of illegal phone hacking. The details were passed to police.
A NoW spokeswoman confirmed Mr Edmondson's sacking, and said the paper would take "swift and decisive action when we have proof of wrongdoing".
Mr Edmondson was suspended from active duties last month after he was identified in court documents as having instructed private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to access phone messages.
Mulcaire was jailed for six months in January 2007 alongside royal editor Clive Goodman, who was sentenced to four months, for hacking into the mobile phones of royal aides.
A source at News International told the BBC: "We have decided to root out and hunt down anyone connected with this practice. We are determined to end this."
The source insisted that no other newspaper executive, present or former, was implicated in the new evidence, but BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said that may not be the case.
"I've been told by two sources that Mr Edmondson has evidence himself that might implicate other senior people at the News of the World, so clearly this has opened a whole can of worms," he said.
The new Met inquiry follows the resignation last week of Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman Andy Coulson, who said the media storm surrounding ongoing hacking claims had distracted him from his work.
Mr Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 and resigned following the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire.
However, he has always denied having any knowledge of hacking, and a source close to him has told the BBC he is not implicated in any way by the new evidence that has come to light.
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.Former deputy PM John Prescott: "I just don't trust the Metropolitan Police to conduct a proper inquiry"
Labour MP Chris Bryant, who believes he may have had his phone hacked and is seeking a judicial review against the police over their handling of information, welcomed the new investigation.
He said: "It just goes to show that the Met never did a full or proper investigation in the first place and that they completely failed to follow every avenue of investigation.
"It is a scandal that it is only through the civil actions that people are bringing that the Met are being forced to act and we are beginning to see the full scale of what went on."
Meanwhile, former MP Paul Marsden has said he may take legal action against newspaper group Trinity Mirror over alleged phone hacking in 2003. The group said its journalists worked within the law.
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