Information Commissioner tells Leveson Inquiry: no evidence of phone hacking since 2006

Information Commissioner Christopher Graham tells the Leveson Inquiry he has seen no evidence of breaches of the data protection act by the press since 2006.

Mr Graham, who took over as Information Commissioner in June 2009, was giving evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into press standards when he said he was not aware any repetition of the breaches of the data protection laws that had been uncovered by Operation Motorman.

Operation Motorman was the 2003 investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office into allegations of offences under the Data Protection Act by the British press.

The Information Commissioner said he believed his office would have been informed if new breaches had come to light, especially ones covered by Section 55, which refers to illegally obtaining or using an individual's personal information.

Mr Graham said: "This is an issue of such high salience, many investigative journalists working in the area, great rivalry between newspaper groups, lots of campaigners, that if there was evidence of further breaches of Section 55 by the press, it would have been drawn to my attention and it hasn't been."