Police Will Not Investigate Newspaper Expenses Leak

The Daily Telegraph will not face a police investigation in relation to the leak of MPs expenses which have since been published, Scotland Yard has said.

Senior officers from the Metropolitan Police and prosecutors have concluded a criminal investigation into the matter would not be in the public interest.

The Met Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson also said an investigation would not be "appropriate" as the public interest is in disclosing abuses of the MP's expenses system.

Sir Paul also said the material did not relate to national security and was due to be published later this summer.

Commons authorities contacted the police after the newspaper published details of minister's expense claims over a period of four years, from 2004 to 2008.

A House spokesman said there were "reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence may have been committed".

A police spokesman, however, said: "Although the leak of documents is not something that the MPS could condone, we have looked at the likelihood of a successful prosecution and whether a prosecution is appropriate.

"Other considerations were the prospect of obtaining evidence and the best use of resources."

The statement continued: "The assessment was informed by a recent published decision from the Director of Public Prosecutions that was, in part, applicable to this case.

"From this the MPS believes the public interest defence would be likely to prove a significant hurdle, in particular the "high threshold" for criminal proceedings in misconduct in public office cases."

See: Speaker Will Step Down Next Month

(JM/BMcC)