The Met Police has confirmed that it obtained journalists’ telecoms records under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act without recourse to a judge.

It was revealed in the Met’s Operation Alice report this week that the Met obtained the mobile phone records of Sun political editor Tom Newton Dunn and also telecoms logs of calls made to The Sun newsdesk. Both were obtained by without the knowledge of the journalist concerned or the publisher.

The information enabled the Met to identify three officers who had directly and indirectly given information to The Sun about the incident on 19 September 2012 when then Government chief whip Andrew Mitchell swore at officers outside 10 Downing Street.