Andy Coulson is to face a retrial on charges outstanding from the hacking trial which ended last week.

The former News of the World editor looked crestfallen in the dock as prosecutor Andrew Edis QC announced the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision.

He will be retried along with the paper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman.

They have both been charged with two counts of conspiring to cause misconduct in public office in relation to the alleged purchase of confidential royal phone directories in 2005 from a palace police officer.

Coulson was convicted of conspiring to hack phones last week in the trial that also saw Rebekah Brooks, his former boss, cleared of all charges.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on the two further charges which flowed from Scotland Yard’s Operation Elveden investigation into payments to public officials for leaking stories.

Mr Justice Saunders discharged the jury after they could not reach a majority verdict last Wednesday.