The News of the World paid police for information about the Royal family from an officer employed to protect them, the BBC alleges.
An internal inquiry at News International uncovered emails in 2007 that included requests by a reporter for money to pay a royal protection officer.
The BBC alleges then-royal editor Clive Goodman asked then- Editor Andy Coulson for £1000 to buy a secret directory of royal numbers from police.
The emails were apparently uncovered by an internal News International investigation in 2007 but were only passed onto the police earlier this year.
The allegations comes the day after News of The World published it’s final edition.
The 168 year old tabloid was shut down by News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch who claimed it had become a “toxic brand” after the Guardian revealed that the paper had hacked into the mobile phone of dead schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Coulson and Goodman were both arrested and bailed on Friday over their alleged activities of the News of the World.
Scotland Yard, already under fire for their inept handling of an earllier inquiry into the extent of NoTW hacking expressed concern that the latest revelation had become public.
"It is our belief that information that has appeared in the media today is part of a deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation into the alleged payments by corrupt journalists to corrupt police officers and divert attention from elsewhere," it said in a statement.
Buckingham Palace have not commented on the claims.
