Former News International legal director Jon Chapman has said that Rupert Murdoch "didn't have his facts right" when he alleged that Harbottle & Lewis made a "major mistake" in an investigation into phone-hacking at the media mogul's newspaper business.

Chapman, who was speaking today (6 September) at a hearing before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, went on to say that Murdoch was "wrong" to blame Harbottle for not concluding there was evidence of widespread phone-hacking at News International.

Harbottle, which has faced intense scrutiny over its role in the phone-hacking scandal after Murdoch's comments this July, last month hit back at the criticism by issuing a open letter, which states: "There was absolutely no question of the firm being asked to provide News International with a clean bill of health which it could deploy years later in wholly different contexts for wholly different purposes."

Murdoch's criticism of Harbottle related to the London firm's 2007 role in reviewing a cache of internal emails following the News of the World's (NoW) dismissal of royal editor Clive Goodman for phone-hacking.

The firm outlined last month that the remit of its mandate was limited to the employment dispute with Goodman, and was not intended to be a general investigation into phone-hacking at the NoW.

Today's select committee hearing also saw former NoW legal manager Tom Crone reiterate that he was "certain" he told News International chairman James Murdoch about an email that implied phone-hacking was more widespread at the newspaper.

Crone and former NoW editor Colin Myler issued a statement in July claiming that they did inform Murdoch of the email before he authorised a damages settlement paid to Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor in 2008, despite Murdoch's parliamentary evidence to the contrary.

Today's developments come after the Law Society confirmed this week that it has written to the Leveson Inquiry – which was set up in July to investigate phone hacking and media ethics – to express its concerns over allegations that lawyers acting for phone-hacking victims have been targeted by private investigators.

Click here for the full transcript of the hearing.