PLENTY of people, including the Prime Minister, must have been hoping Andy Coulson’s departure would be the end of the phone hacking saga.

Unfortunately for them, the matter would seem to be far from over.

There are too many unanswered questions involving too many influential people for a simple resignation to lance the boil.

The police, too, are facing uncomfortable questions. Scotland Yard has been accused of failing in the way it has investigated the scandal and whether it informed all the victims their phone calls may have been compromised.

Until now, the police have seemed curiously reluctant to reopen the case, despite a regular drip feed of new allegations.

The Crown Prosecution Service is reviewing the evidence to see if there should be any further investigation, but its review is in danger of being overtaken by events.

Eavesdropping on phone conversations between celebrities and their agents is one thing, bugging senior politicians – including, it was claimed over the weekend, Gordon Brown when he was Chancellor – is a crime of an entirely different magnitude.

Phone hacking is illegal. It is up to the police to uphold the law.

A new investigation is essential – if only to clear the air ahead of a decision on whether or not to allow News Corp to buy the remaining 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own.

This is one story that is not about to go away anytime soon.