The former director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has conceded the watchdog took a "restrictive and timorous" approach when faced with the possibility of questioning Andy Coulson over phone hacking after his resignation from the News of the World.

Tim Toulmin, who was in the post when the now-defunct tabloid's royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for the practice, said he "accepted some time ago" that the PCC could have called Coulson to shed light on illegal activity at the Sunday paper.

But he said at the time the watchdog's powers would not have had any "traction" with the former editor.

Read more at Press Gazette.