In Britain, the scope of the probe into the phone hacking scandal widened, records of an earlier investigation that implicated newspaper titles other than those owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International are being re-examined. The files from Operation Motorman, which was conducted by the Information Commissioner's Office in 2003, have been requested by the police conducting the current investigation. The scale of the dubious news gathering practices is evident from the earlier inquiry, which revealed that 4,000 requests from 300 journalists and 31 publications for confidential information were made to a private investigator. According to a BBC report, many of the cases indicated use of illegal practices.The investigation found the Daily Mail had made the most requests, followed by the Sunday People and the Daily Mirror. More resources are also being allocated to the investigators. The Scotland Yard said, the current operation, codenamed Operation Weeting, has been boosted by increasing the number of police officers working on it from 45 to 60 officers.Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers guaranteed a thorough inquiry into the issue during a hearing of the Home Affairs Select Committee last week.