Leveson inquiry: Jeff Edwards, Sandra Laville, Jonathan Ungoed-Thomas Leveson inquiry: Sandra Laville is giving evidence 10.42am: Laville says the reaction within the Met to the inquiry and the police investigations into the News of the World have already lead to a restriction in unofficial communications that affects her ability to do her job. She says she recently talked to a senior officer she had known for years about a case. He was happy to talk but says he couldn't do so without permission from the press office which refused the request; this is "absolutely not" how it was in the past. 10.41am: For years journalists and police officers have had a "mutually beneficial relationship" that has lasted a long time because it works, says Laville. She says most of the 52,000 people in the Met and the vast majority of journalists know the law and go about their job appropriately. She tells the inquiry that rather than clamp down on communication it would be better to "encourage best practice" and reiterate the legal boundaries. 10.39am: Laville says the Met police's official channels are too slow. She says during the riots last summer, the Scotland Yard press bureau was trying to help, but was too busy to provide anything on the "human side" of the disturbances in time for a newspaper deadline. Laville says she got the "colour" she needed through informal contacts. 10.327am: Laville says official communications tend to be quite narrow and don't add the "colour and texture" that you get from talking to an individual officer. She adds that journalists always have to "probe deeper" to get to the truth. She says, for example, that the revelation that the police had blundered in their hunt for serial rapist Kirk Reid had come from informal contacts with police, not through a press office. Not all courts are attended by journalists, she says, and crime reporters rely on their informal contacts with the police to find out what is going on. 10.25am: Laville says she uses informal contacts with police officers as well as official channels to obtain information. She says the "pendulum" tends to swing from openness to a clampdown on officers talking openly. "Under Lord Condon you could not talk to an officer without a press officer present," she says. Even button-holing officers outside court was impossible. She adds this changed under Lord Stevens when the policy reverted to "more openness." 10.22am: The first witness is Sandra Laville, the Guardian's crime correspondent. Lucinda Boon, counsel to the inquiry, is doing the questioning. 10.17am: The inquiry has now begun. Neil Garnham, QC, for the Met, says he is concerned the inquiry is being used as a "vehicle to settle old scores" by Peter Tickner, who was announced as a witness for tomorrow. He says his witness statement suggests he make "left-field" allegations against former Met staff including ex-commissioners Lord Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson. Tickner used to work at the Met and was in charge of internal investigations into fraud and corruption. Garnham says he wants the opportunity to cross-examine Tickner. Lord Justice Leveson says he will let Robert Jay QC, counsel for the victims, consider the proposal and they will discuss the suggestion at the end of the day. He adds it is important to have a "balanced approach" and if it is necessary to put the evidence back he would be prepared to do so. 10.00am: Welcome to the Leveson inquiry live blog. Today's witnesses are Crime Reporters' Association president Jeff Edwards, the Guardian's Sandra Laville, the Independent's Paul Peachey and the Sunday Times's Jonathan Ungoed-Thomas. Edwards was chief crime correspondent of the Daily Mirror for 15 years and was been a journalist on national papers and TV for 35 years. As well as his role at the CRA, he has been an associate lecturer at the Police Staff College at Bramshill, Hants. In 2008, he told Press Gazette: I don't think one of my editors knew how much skill and deftness goes into being an effective crime reporter in terms of the delicate way things need to be done. I realised that integrity and discretion in your dealings with, not "contacts," but your friends and associates, are key. The things I haven't told my bosses are as important as the big stories I have got. It goes against your journalistic nature, but you play a long game. It's a village; the Metropolitan police has 30,000 employees, but if you are untrustworthy, duplicitous and a thoroughly bad egg you will be surprised how quickly that will get around. If you are good news and you can be "spoken to" it will get around, not quite as fast, but it will get around. Last month, Edwards told Newsnight that while he was at the Mirror there was no culture of bribing public officials. However, he claimed that while he worked for the News of the World between 1980 and 1985 he was removed from his post as crime correspondent because of his refusal to pay police officers. He alleged: Between 1980 and 1985 I was employed at the News of the World as their crime correspondent and I was removed from my post because of my complete and reluctance and refusal to pay police officers. I was told so and someone else was put into it who was prepared to take that action. There was always, I thought at the News of the World a culture of underhandness, or corrupt practice.