Payments to officials scandal hits NHS

Police investigating illicit payments from journalists to public officials have arrested a former healthcare worker, the Guardian reports.

The news organisation’s website says a 59-year-old man was held at his Merseyside home on Thursday by detectives from the Metropolitan police’s Operation Elveden unit. He is the 57th arrest in the operation.

It reports Scotland Yard as saying the man was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office, corruption, and suspected conspiracy in relation to both offences.

The arrest was a result of information handed over by News Corporation’s management and standards committee.

Scotland Yard said: "It relates to suspected payments to a public official and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."