The Guardian reports:
Arrested News of the World executive was employed as Met adviser
Neil Wallis, who has been questioned over phone hacking, advised commissioner on communications, Scotland Yard says
Scotland Yard has admitted it employed Neil Wallis, a former executive at the News of the World, as an adviser to the commissioner until September 2010.
Wallis was employed to advise Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates on a part-time basis from October 2009 to September 2010. During this time the Yard was saying there was no need to reopen the phone-hacking investigation – a decision made by Yates despite allegations in the Guardian that the first police investigation had been inadequate.
Wallis is a former News of the World executive editor. He was arrested on Thursday morning as part of the police’s renewed phone-hacking inquiry.
Wallis joined the News of the World in 2003 as deputy to then editor Andy Coulson. In mid-2007 he became executive editor, eventually leaving the News International title in 2009. Police say he supplied “strategic communication advice”. The Met said his company was chosen because it offered to do the work for the lowest price. He was paid £24,000 by Scotland Yard to work as a two-day-a-month consultant.
The rest here.