View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Media Law
April 8, 2013

‘Incredible’ £19.5m so far spent on operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta

By William Turvill

Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis has blasted the Metropolitan Police after it was revealed that it has spent an “incredible” £19.5m on operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta.

Wallis said the money could have been better spent on fighting more “serious” crimes such as murder, rape, terrorism and paedophilia.

He was reacting to Freedom of Information figures obtained by Press Gazette showing that as of the end of January this year £11.2m had been spent on the Operation Weeting hacking inquiry, £5m on Elveden (bribes) and £1.3m on Tuleta (computer hacking).

Projected costs for the end of March this year were £1.1m for Weeting, £0.7m for Elveden and £0.2m for Tuleta. These figures do not include legal costs associated with the operations.

“I think it’s an incredible amount of money when you think what else that money could have been spent on,” he told Press Gazette.

“And that won’t be the end of it. You can expect that amount of money to double.

“The police have already said that they expect the investigation to go on for a couple more years.”

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

The FoI request also revealed that 96 officers have worked on Weeting, 70 on Elveden and 19 on Tuleta. The operations have seen at least 59 journalists arrested since April 2011.

Wallis criticised the Metropolitan Police for arresting journalists – like him and The Sun’s Mike Sullivan – and keeping them on bail “while searching for crimes” they had not committed.

He described the combined probes as the “biggest police operation in history” and said resources should be distributed elsewhere.

“I accept that wrongdoing has to be investigated but it all has to come down to proportionality,” he said, adding that arresting journalists should be seen as less of a priority than tackling “sex crimes, rape, terrorism and murder”.

The Metropolitan Police chose not to comment.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network