Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been charged alongside five others with perverting the course of justice in relation to phone-hacking.

In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed its intention to charge Brooks (pictured) – who is being advised by Kingsley Napley criminal litigation head Stephen Parkinson – with conspiring with her husband Charles Brooks to destroy evidence relating to phone-hacking.

Parkinson was appointed by Brooks last July following her arrest by police investigating allegations of phone-hacking and illegal payments to police officers.

The other individuals set to be charged by the CPS include Rebekah Brooks' personal assistant Cheryl Carter, her chauffeur Paul Edwards, and Mark Hanna and Daryl Jorsling, security staff at News International.

The CPS' principal legal adviser Alison Levitt QC said in a statement: "The CPS received a file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police Service on 27 March in relation to seven suspects.

"Applying the two-stage test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors I have concluded that in relation to all suspects except the seventh, there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction."

The three charges described in the statement describe how Brooks and others allegedly concealed documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service, as well as permanently removing seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.

Separately, Legal Week has learnt that Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr has been instructed on behalf of New Corporation's public affairs executive Frederic Michel, with senior litigator Stephen Pollard – who joined last year from Kingsley Napley – taking the lead.

Michel is under scrutiny over his role in the correspondence between News International and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has been overseeing News Corp's bid to take over BSkyB.