Metropolitan Police to take forward Operation Tuleta, which will investigate matters not covered by phone hacking inquiry

Scotland Yard is to expand its investigations into unlawful newspaper practices by setting up a new task force to examine claims of computer hacking by the News of the World.

The Metropolitan Police said a formal investigation would be launched to take forward Operation Tuleta, which was set up to examine the use of "Trojan" emails that gives a hacker full access to a target computer's contents by infecting it with a virus.

The new team, reporting to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, will investigate matters not covered by Operation Weeting, the force's phone hacking probe.

A spokeswoman said: "Operation Tuleta is currently considering a number of allegations regarding breach of privacy, received by MPs since January 2011, which fall outside the remit of Operation Weeting, including computer hacking.

"Some aspects of this operation will move forward to a formal investigation. There will be a new team reporting to DAC Sue Akers. The formation of that team is yet to take place."

The announcement came after former army intelligence officer Ian Hurst said the force was formally investigating his claim that his computer was hacked by a private investigator working for the News of the World.

In July 2006 Hurst was sent an email containing a Trojan programme which copied his emails and relayed them back to the hacker. This included messages he had exchanged with at least two agents who informed on the Provisional IRA — Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife; and a second informant known as Kevin Fulton. Both men were regarded as high-risk targets for assassination. Hurst was one of the very few people who knew their whereabouts.

Hurst told Channel 4 News: "Police officers working for Operation Tuleta have informed me that they have identified information of evidential value in regards to my family's computer being illegally accessed over a sustained period of 2006.

"The decision by the Metropolitan Police to proceed to a full criminal investigation was conveyed to me this week by Tuleta police officers."

The acting chief of Scotland Yard said earlier this week that the phone-hacking scandal had "tarnished" the force's reputation.

Tim Godwin, acting commissioner after the resignation of Sir Paul Stephenson, said it was "a matter of great regret" the force had suffered criticism over its actions and ethical standards, after revelations of repeated private dinners between its top officers and senior executives at the News of the World.

Former Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and assistant commissioner John Yates stepped down earlier this month following criticism of the Met's handling of the phone hacking investigation.

Yates twice made the decision - in July 2009 and September 2010 - not to reopen an inquiry into phone hacking that has affected up to 4,000 victims. His reputation was also been contaminated by closeness with Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World employed as a PR adviser by the force.

Former deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke, who oversaw the first phone-hacking investigation which began in 2005, admitted that evidence recovered from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire had not been thoroughly gone through by his detectives. Thus they had failed to identify victims of the NoW hacking including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose voicemail was accessed after she disappeared.