The most interesting fact to emerge from the Home Affairs Committee's questioning of Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing commissioner, was that 10 members of Scotland Yard's PR and communications staff formerly worked for News International.
Is that unusual, given the size of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper business in the UK? That's probably a question for the review of ethics and relations between police and the press. But this morning, it was grist to the mill of the Met's critics who say that the force had become too close to the newspaper group. Sir Paul Stephenson, in what was his final appearance before MPs, was defiant. He delivered a pithy soundbite, declaring he had not quit because he was pushed, but because it was the right thing to do as a leader.
But what MPs wanted to bottom out - and didn't - was the exact business around Neil Wallis, the former News of the World executive who gave PR advice to the force before being arrested last week in the hacking probe.
The issue boils down to two key points. The first question relates to how Mr Wallis was employed. The second relates to who needed to know about that contract, and when, as the News of the World's hacking defence began to crumble.
Starting with who needed to know, the first the public heard of Mr Wallis's contract with the Met was in the hours after his arrest. Neither the home secretary nor prime minister had prior knowledge, we are told.
Sir Paul said to MPs on Tuesday that he had no reason to tell the prime minister about Mr Wallis because, when he was employed in October 2009, he had not featured in the original hacking investigation. But the question from critics is whether there came a point when the force should have said something about Mr Wallis, not least because the PM had seen his own PR chief, Andy Coulson, quit and be subsequently arrested.
Sir Paul said that he only knew "several weeks ago" that Mr Wallis was a potential suspect in Operation Weeting.
Twists and turns But the curious question that emerged this morning was whether there had an attempt to tell Downing Street last autumn, after a critical article about the News of the World in the New York Times.
In committee, it initially sounded like the Met were warned off talking to Number 10 about Mr Wallis's PR contract.
But John Yates, who resigned as a Met Police assistant commissioner over the issue on Monday, later told the committee that he had offered to talk Number 10 through the processes that detectives were following over hacking, rather than any of the twists and turns. That e-mail exchange has now been released. On 10 September, Mr Yates e-mailed Ed Llewellyn, the prime minister's chief of staff, and said: "I am coming over to see the PM at 12.30 today [on national security matters]. I am very happy to have a conversation in the margins around the other matters that have caught my attention this week if you thought it would be useful."
Mr Llewelyn replied: "Assuming we are thinking of the same thing, I am sure you will understand that we will want to be able to be entirely clear, for your sake and ours, that we have not been in contact with you about this subject.
"So I don't think it would really be appropriate for the PM, or anyone else at No 10, to discuss this issue with you, and would be grateful if it were not raised please."
Scotland Yard's line is that there was never any discussion with Number 10 about Mr Wallis - because to alert the PM would be to go into operational matters that are normally kept from politicians until they need to know.
What about the manner of Mr Wallis's appointment? Sir Paul said he had been consulted prior to the appointment, but the decision was for others.
Dick Fedorcio, the Met's director of public affairs, didn't say who had recommended Mr Wallis as a consultant - but denied that it had been former News International chief executive and News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks. He said that he relied on John Yates to carry out due diligence on Mr Wallis prior to offering the contract.
Nicola Blackwood, a Conservative member of the committee, pressed him on this point, asking whether it had been appropriate given Mr Wallis and AC Yates were friends. Did that not put the police officer in a difficult position? Mr Fedorcio said that he trusted Mr Yates judgement as one of the top police officers in the country and asked him to carry out "a form of due diligence". Mr Fedorcio's role in appointing Mr Wallis has been referred to the police watchdog.
Mr Yates, who believes he is a victim of malicious rumour, said that due diligence was not his job. He asked Mr Wallis to give one simple assurance: that his appointment would not lead to embarrassment later on. The assurance came - but so did the embarrassment.
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