News Corp Chief Executive and Chairman Rupert Murdoch appears before a parliamentary committee on phone hacking at Portcullis House in London
News Corp Chief Executive and Chairman Rupert Murdoch appears before a parliamentary committee on phone hacking at Portcullis House in London Reuters

A 47-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice under Operation Weeting – the investigation into phone hacking in the media.

She was arrested at her home in Essex and was being held in custody at an Essex police station.

The unnamed woman is the 17<sup>th person to be arrested by Operation Weeting officers in relation to phone hacking in the year since the investigation was set up.

Operation Elveden runs alongside Operation Weeting and is looking into police corruption following claims that the media had been making payments to the police.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Stephenson and assistant commissioner John Yates resigned in relation to both investigations. Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, at the centre of the hacking scandal, was closed down in July 2011 after 168 years.

The latest arrest was the first since December 7 when private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.