Richard Thomas

Our report of the Leveson Inquiry on 6 December 2011 said that former Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, had told MPs in 2007 that lawyers had advised him that journalists should not be prosecuted in connection with the Operation Motorman investigation, and contrasted that to the legal advice he had received in 2003 to the effect that there was “little doubt” that journalists had committed offences. We were wrong to suggest that in any way Mr Thomas had misled MPs. In fact Mr Thomas was telling MPs about subsequent legal advice obtained in 2005 after Steve Whittamore and others had been sentenced to conditional discharges, when he was advised that further prosecutions should not go ahead. We accept that our report was misleading and we apologise to Mr Thomas.