The Independent on Sunday revealed that the privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has launched an investigation into claims that vital emails between senior executives and journalists on the News of the World have been “lost” while being transported to India.
The IoS reported:
Experts fear the missing emails – on computer hard disk drives that have reportedly vanished – could have major implications for the multiple investigations into claims the newspaper was involved in widespread hacking into the phone messages of targets from the worlds of politics, royalty and entertainment.
The investigation will add to mounting pressure on Andy Coulson, press secretary to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and a former editor of the News of the World. Coulson, who denies any knowledge of the hacking, resigned from his post after Clive Goodman, the paper’s former royal correspondent, was convicted of hacking the phones of Prince William’s aides.
This followed Tom Watson’s letter to the ICO asking if the loss of data was in breach of the Data Protection Act. The response from the ICO is in full below: