Curbs on newspaper rewards considered

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, is to review the practice of newspaper rewards following the furore over the huge sums offered in the hunt for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

Critics claim rewards can jeopardise justice and impair police investigations.

Ms Jowell has been charged with "keeping an eye" on the issue and will decide in consultation with newspapers and press watchdogs whether the code governing journalists' behaviour needs to be tightened up in this area.

The move comes after concerns were raised about the bidding war between a number of rival tabloid newspapers to reward information about the missing schoolgirls.

It is thought that the offer of £1m by the Daily Express may have played a part in some of the erroneous information given to police and made their job more difficult by attracting bounty hunters to the Cambridgeshire town of Soham where the girls lived.

Opening the inquest into the deaths of the girls, the Cambridgeshire coroner, David Morris, said the media "invasion" of Soham and the offer of large rewards had placed extra pressure on the police and upset the girls' families.