John Yates (police officer)

Yates' promotion to Assistant Commissioner was confirmed by the Metropolitan Police Authority on 18 December 2006; he had previously held the position on a temporary basis.[3][7] A press release issued by the Metropolitan Police Authority stated that Yates would be a member of the MPS management board: "John Yates will help formulate the strategic direction of the largest police service in the country and will manage a major business area".[3]

In March 2009, Yates was assigned to investigate allegations of torture made against UK anti-terrorism officials and on 9 April 2009, it was announced that he would replace Bob Quick as head of Specialist Operations.[8]

As Deputy Assistant Commissioner, then acting Assistant Commissioner, Yates headed the team of detectives investigating the allegations that life peerages were awarded in return for loans, and it was a member of his team who interviewed the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair in December 2006. Yates's team handed its main file on the cash for peerages inquiry to the Crown Prosecution Service on Friday 20 April 2007.[9] On 20 July 2007, the CPS announced that no charges would be brought as a result of the investigation for lack of direct evidence of an agreement that would have violated the law forbidding the sale of honours.[10]

In mid-2009, Yates conducted a review of the 2006 Police inquiry into the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal, which had led to the imprisonment of two men in January 2007. In light of the new allegations in The Guardian, in July 2009 the Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson asked Assistant Commissioner Yates to review the original investigation for new evidence. In one 8-hour meeting, Yates reviewed the investigation but did not take any further action. In a later public statement, and in a July 2009 appearance at the Home Affairs Select Committee, he announced of the initial investigation that he "found it to be satisfactory".[11] Yates then passed his findings back to the Commissioner and agreed with lawyers and the head of the Crown Prosecution Service Keir Starmer that no further action need be taken, and the case was not reopened.[12] Yates' review did not include examination of possible leads from the thousands of pages of the available evidence seized in raids between 1999 and 2006.[13] On 9 July 2009, Yates issued a statement.[14] In September 2009, Yates reported his conclusions to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee saying, "There remain now insufficient grounds or evidence to arrest or interview anyone else and... no additional evidence has come to light."[15]

In 2011, dramatic developments in the scandal led to the closure of the News of the World newspaper, Yates faced allegations of wrongdoing, including from MP Chris Bryant, who called for his resignation saying "a very dirty smell" surrounded the police's conduct in the matter.[16] The main accusations relate to having misled Parliament, having repeatedly reported that there was evidence of only around 10–12 cases, but it later emerged that police had evidence of "a vast number" of victims.[17] Yates later said that he believed that he should refer only to cases where voicemail messages had been shown to have been intercepted prior to them being heard by the intended recipient. He also claimed to have ensured that four major mobile phone companies had informed around 120 people that their messages had been hacked, a claim disputed by the companies involved, two of which wrote to Scotland Yard stating that it was incorrect.[18] Other criticisms related to failures to inform individuals that there was evidence their phone had been hacked,[19][20] the perceived lack of thoroughness of the investigation[21] and failure to take adequate action against officers who were known to have illegally accepted bribes.[22]

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph published on 9 July 2011, Yates expressed "extreme regret" for the failings in the initial phone hacking inquiry but dismissed any suggestion of corruption or improper relationships on his part.[23] On 18 July 2011, Yates announced his resignation from the Metropolitan Police. The Met said of his resignation, "Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority. His resignation was accepted".[24]

In May 2012, a report into phone hacking by a House of Commons select committee found that Yates, along with director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer, was culpable for failing to properly investigate evidence when hacking was first brought to his attention in 2006–2007.[25] The report concluded, "The police at that time had no interest or willingness to uncover the full extent of the phone-hacking which had taken place".[25] Since Yates's resignation and the reopening of police investigations in 2011, 90 people have been arrested and 16 have been formally charged with crimes.

Yates was the subject of very serious criticism by Lord Justice Leveson in his report:

'In reality, Mr Yates failed adequately to address any question other than whether there was anything in the newspaper reports that constituted "new evidence". This was notwithstanding the fact that a vast amount of documentation available from the August 2006 seizures had not been fully analysed by the MPS itself; very little of it had been considered (let alone reviewed) by the CPS, save only for the very limited exercise of disclosure of unused material.' [page 417, Volume 1, Leveson Report]

There was a mischaracterisation of the evidence which had been provisionally reviewed in August/September 2006 as amounting to "no evidence" either of other criminal offences or as implicating other potential defendants or, alternatively, if it was thought that there was evidence but only insufficient to prosecute, to consider whether, in the light of the Guardian’s article, that approach continued to be correct. [page 418, Volume 1, Leveson Report]

Lord Justice Leveson described his approach from the outset as "inappropriately dismissive, defensive and closed-minded" (p. 418, vol. 1, Leveson Report).