Whitehall's contacts to be reviewed

Published on Wednesday 20 July 2011 19:54

DAVID Cameron has ordered the head of the civil service to review contacts between the media and Whitehall departments in the wake of the phone- hacking scandal.

The Prime Minister said Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell had written to senior civil servants about regulating and recording contacts with the press.

Mr Cameron told MPs: "We have seen that cosiness with the media is clearly a problem for the police, but it may be a problem for other walks of public life as well.

"I have asked the Cabinet Secretary to write to all permanent secretaries to ask them to review the way contacts between the media and their staff and other professional groups that work with their departments are regulated and recorded."

He added: "We see there is a problem with the police and the media. We need, I think, to get ahead of there possibly being problems with other groups as well."

The announcement was included in yesterday's special Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, which lasted two hours. Yesterday's emergency session was the first time the House of Commons was formally recalled after the start of the summer recess since MPs returned to debate Iraq in 2002.