The publisher of the Mirror titles and the Sunday People has failed in a Court of Appeal bid to ensure confidential sources are protected in the disclosure of call records as part of phone-hacking litigation.

Mirror Group Newspapers applied to the High Court in March last year to amend the “early disclosure” regime, which means it must provide phone-hacking claimants with call data in relation to them and four nominated friends or family members, known as associates.

Mr Justice Mann dismissed the case, saying the regime was “very important to the just and proportionate disposal of cases” and that the call data was “of great significance in the litigation”.