Top policeman's numbers on hacking lists

The home and mobile telephone numbers of Britain’s former top policeman were found on lists obtained by detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World.

But ex-Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Blair said he had no evidence that his voicemail messages were illegally intercepted.

Scotland Yard officers carrying out the phone-hacking inquiry, known as Operation Weeting, are examining 11,000 pages of material containing nearly 4,000 names of possible hacking victims.

Lord Blair told MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee: “What I am aware of is that my mobile and home telephone numbers were within the files that have been examined.

“I have no evidence and nor, as far I am aware, does Operation Weeting have any evidence to suggest that those phones were hacked.”

The former policeman also said an earlier inquiry into phone hacking by the tabloid paper while he was head of Scotland Yard was “not a major issue at the time”.

“Never during my period of office, which ended in 2008, did it become a major issue,” he said.