The Director of Public Prosecutions has defended police use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act against The Sun and Mail on Sunday.

Asked if the Crown Prosecution Service should be giving advice to police on the use of RIPA against journalists, Alison Saunders said: “I think RIPA sets out a very clear and very thorough framework, quite rightly so, for what are intrusive powers.”

It emerged in September that The Sun’s newsdesk phone records, and those of political editor Tom Newton Dunn, had been obtained by the Metropolitan Police to find the source of its Plebgate story. Three officers lost their jobs as a result of the RIPA probe, despite the fact that the Crown Prosecution Service said they had no case to answer because they acted in the public interest.