No further action will be taken against companies and journalists accused of phone hacking, the Crown Prosecution Service said, announcing there was insufficient evidence to bring corporate charges against Rupert Murdoch’s News UK and criminal cases against 10 current and former Mirror Group employees.

The CPS announced the conclusion of police operations Weeting and Golding on Friday, following its review of evidence amassed in the controversial investigation of journalists accused of hacking at the two media companies’ newspapers.

“After a thorough analysis, we have decided there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction and therefore no further action will be taken in any of these cases,” said Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions at the CPS.

Operation Weeting, the hacking investigation which included looking intocorporate liability at News UK, the publisher of the Times, the Sun, the now defunct News of the World and the Sun on Sunday, had resulted in a dossier of evidence being passed to the CPS in July this year.

“Potential charges for phone hacking and perverting the course of justice were considered,” the CPS said. “After thorough analysis of the evidence, it has been decided that no further action will be taken for either charge.”

There was no evidence to suggest that any member of the board of News UK had knowledge of phone hacking when it was taking place, the CPS said.

It was also investigating allegations of phone hacking at Mirror Group Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, for the past three years.

But the CPS said no charges would be brought after it reviewed several strands of evidence, adding that “scrutiny of suspicious call data” had been a significant deciding factor.

In other developments:

News UK said it welcomed the decision by the CPS. “We now relish the chance to focus fully on what this company does best – world class professional journalism,” a spokeswoman said.

The Metropolitan Police said it had so far spent a total of £41.3m on investigations into journalism, excluding legal costs. Operation Weeting, the overall hacking investigation of which Operation Golding was a part that looked specifically at the Mirror, ran up a bill of £22.8m from when it began in January 2011 until 30 November this year.

Lawyers for victims of phone-hacking have accused the CPS of “losing the will to live” and of abandoning its prosecutions against journalists after high-profile setbacks. Gerald Shamash, who represented former England footballer Paul Gascoigne and ex-BBC executive Alan Yentob, said: “My clients have been subjected to a considerable barrage of interception and it’s somewhat surprising no one has been prosecuted for it.”

Mirror Group is facing further payouts, with lawyers saying more celebrities are preparing to come forward to sue for damages over alleged hacking, despite the CPS decision.

Shares in Trinity Mirror rose 7.75p, or 4.8%, to 169.75p as investors appeared to take cheer from the CPS decision.

Those arrested during the Mirror investigation included former Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver, who was seven months pregnant at the time, former Sunday People editor James Scott, ex-Sunday People deputy editor Nick Buckley, former People editor Mark Thomas, and Lee Harpin, the agenda editor across Trinity Mirror’s three national titles.

Police also questioned the former Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace under caution as part of Operation Weeting. He was deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror between 2003 and 2004, before being editor of the Daily Mirror until 2012.

Writing on Twitter, the former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, who was interviewed under caution twice, said: “I’ve today been informed by CPS that no further action will be taken against me re: Met police phone hacking investigation.

“As I’ve said since the investigation began four years ago, I’ve never hacked a phone and nor have I ever told anybody to hack a phone. Thanks to all my family and friends, and kind people on here, for all their support. It was greatly appreciated”.

Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) I'm now going to get spectacularly drunk. Happy Christmas.

Allegations of perverting the course of justice were considered in relation to the actions of News Group Newspapers (NGN, now called News UK) from April 2006, when the first arrests for phone hacking were made, until April 2011, when it admitted liability in civil proceedings.



The CPS said: “We have reviewed the evidence in relation to the News of the World employees’ conduct during the original police phone-hacking investigation and concluded that there is nothing that these employees could have done which would have altered or affected the resulting prosecution. Therefore the company cannot be said to have perverted the course of justice.”



The fact that the group decided to settle rather than resist civil proceedings “cannot be considered to be actions which could pervert the course of justice”, the CPS said.

An email deletion policy was also examined but it was found that there were “legitimate reasons for companies to have an email deletion policy … In this case, there is no evidence to suggest that email deletion was undertaken in order to pervert the course of justice.”

“Knowledge gleaned after the fact is not sufficient,” it added. “An individual was paid significant sums of money over many years by NGN for phone hacking, but there is no evidence that anyone on the board knew that the money paid was because phone hacking was taking place. Therefore, there is no senior officer of the company through whom corporate criminal liability could be established.”

Regarding the Mirror Group journalists, the CPS said: “The call data showed a regular pattern of two calls being placed to the same number (double tapping) and also a large number of calls placed to voicemail platform numbers,” the CPS statement said. “However, it is not possible to prove the fact that the ‘double taps’ and calls to voicemail platform numbers are definitely instances of phone hacking.

“In addition, it was common practice at Mirror Group Newspapers for journalists to use one another’s telephones, and so it is not possible to determine which individuals were responsible for making specific calls.”

The News UK spokeswoman said: “Long ago, we apologised for the conduct that occurred, immediately took steps to pay compensation to those affected, and updated and instituted substantial reforms in our business to ensure our governance is second to none. Following a thorough and exhaustive investigation, and after many long trials, enquiries and proceedings, this matter has been concluded and the right decision has been taken.

“At the same time, we are mindful of the many employees and their families who endured great hardship during these past few years. Even in the midst of such adversity, they continued building this business, working with diligence and professionalism, and have much to be proud of.”

A spokesman for Trinity Mirror said: “We previously announced that a number of our journalists had been arrested in relation to inquiries into phone hacking and that the Metropolitan police service had informed the company of a criminal investigation into our subsidiary, MGN Ltd, in relation to phone hacking. It has been confirmed to us today that no further action will be taken in relation to these matters.

“We await the outcome of the court of appeal hearing with regard to the civil claims in relation to phone hacking.”

The court is deciding whether the high court was wrong to award damages of £1.2m to eight victims of phone hacking, including the actor Sadie Frost, after a civil trial earlier this year.

A civil lawyer who acted for one of the victims in that trial said the CPS decision was “quite unbelievable” given Mirror Group’s admissions during the case. The newspaper group admitted that around 100 articles about the eight victims were likely to have been the product of illegal newsgathering methods, including phone hacking and data blagging.

Another leading lawyer, who did not want to be named, described the decision as bizarre. He said of the CPS: “They’ve lost the will to live. They’ve had enough of aggressive journalists’ defences. They’ve had a few successes but they’ve also lost a few. I wish they would just say ‘We’ve had enough’”.