Leveson Inquiry: The big numbers

On Thursday, Lord Justice Leveson's Inquiry into press standards in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal will publish its report.

Some of the UK's most powerful people appeared before the inquiry over more than 100 days to be quizzed about the future of the British press, its relationship with the police, politicians and how it should be regulated.

Here we look back at its scale, how many words were spoken, who appeared, and which of the key witnesses struggled to remember.

What were the most popular words? The top five words, excluding commonly used parts of speech such as pronouns
6,362
People
6,214
Right
5,948
Press
5,597
Public
5,214
Media

Who spoke the most?
  • 36,001 words
    Nick Davies
    Guardian journalist
  • 31,076 words
    Alastair Campbell
    Ex-government spokesman
  • 25,890 words
    David Cameron
    Prime Minister
  • 24,034 words
    Tony Blair
    Former Prime Minister
1.4 million words spoken. Robert Jay QC 546,533. Lord Justice Leveson 333,710
Who had the worst memory? The number of times key figures said: "I don't remember," "I don't recall," "I can't remember" or "I can't recall."
00 = Instances of not remembering      = 50 words spoken
  • David Cameron David
    Cameron
    49
    of 25,890
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • James Murdoch James
    Murdoch
    41
    of 23,162
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Rebekah Brooks Rebekah
    Brooks
    35
    of 20,544
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Rupert Murdoch Rupert
    Murdoch
    30
    of 19,362
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Andy Coulson Andy
    Coulson
    28
    of 10,531
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Colin Myler Colin
    Myler
    23
    of 13,889
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Jeremy Hunt Jeremy
    Hunt
    23
    of 24,032
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
  • Tony Blair Tony
    Blair
    19
    of 24,034
    words spoken
    Representation of the number of words spoken
Who were the witnesses?
The inquiry has heard and received evidence from:

135
organisations
474
people


Those people are, or have been, involved in:
  • Media or PR
  • 202
  • The police
  • 48
  • Law
  • 41
  • Politics
  • 38
  • Academia
  • 36
  • Regulators or watchdogs
  • 21
  • Campaigns or charities
  • 14
  • Entertainment
  • 12
  • Other
  • 62
Amount of evidence heard from each group

Notes on the data: All data was taken from the Leveson Inquiry website on Thursday 19 July 2012 and does not include the final two days of the inquiry on 23 and 24 July.

In the breakdown of witnesses by profession, police press personnel have been included in the media or PR category and company lawyers in law. The number of people includes some representatives of organisations also included in the organisation count.