News International has agreed to settle 130 civil damages claims for News of the World phone hacking with individuals including Cherie Blair, David Beckham's father, and actor James Nesbitt, at a cost to the company expected to run into millions.
The publisher of the now-closed Sunday tabloid faces 167 phone-hacking damages claims filed by September from almost 180 individuals, after settling more than 50 earlier in 2012 from individuals including Lord Prescott, Jude Law and Sienna Miller.
Informed sources say that News International has now settled 130 of those claims. The total number will be confirmed at a high court case-management conference on 8 February, when more details of the amounts News International has agreed to pay are likely to emerge.
Blair launched her claim last year for damages "in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails". It is not known when Blair was targeted, but the vast majority of claims being made against Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid relate to a period between 2000 and 2006, when her husband, Tony Blair, was prime minister.
It is understood many of the 130 settlements were agreed just before Christmas, including those involving Ted Beckham, father of footballer David, and Nesbitt, who most recently featured in The Hobbit.
Others who have settled include former transport secretary Stephen Byers and Emma Noble, the former daughter-in-law of former prime minister John Major, and ex-Tory MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine.
Lord Blencathra, a former Tory minister, has also settled. He has multiple sclerosis and believes he was hacked because the News of the World mistook his condition for excessive drinking.
News International has also agreed payments to former Liverpool footballer Neil Ruddock, Jeff Brazier, ex-boyfriend of Jade Goody, and actor Tamzin Outhwaite.
Leslie Grantham, the former EastEnders actor, is also understood to have settled, along with Charlotte Church's parish priest, Father Richard Reardon.
The singer and her family received £300,000 in phone-hacking damages from News International, along with another £300,000 in legal costs in February 2012.
Reardon and one of Church's ex-boyfriends launched separate cases once they were told by the Metropolitan police there was evidence that they too had had their phones hacked.
News International's barrister, Michael Silverleaf QC, told the high court last year that Reardon's solicitor, Mark Thomson, was "plain wrong" to suggest that the only way the News of the World could have got certain stories about Church was by listening to the priest's voicemails.
Lewis Sproston, the former boyfriend of murdered model Sally Anne Bowman has settled, as has Michelle Bayford, the girlfriend of a trainee plumber who became known as "elephant man" after a drugs trial he volunteered to participate in went wrong and left six men critically ill.
Margaret Atkinson, a friend of the mother of Eimear Cook, ex-wife of the golfer Colin Montgomery, is also believed to have accepted damages from News International.
The number of claims News International has agreed to settle has risen from 22 to 130 since mid December. Those who are already known to have settled before December include Hugh Grant and TV presenter Jamie Theakston.
High court judge Mr Justice Vos has been managing the second batch of claims against News International with a view to trying some lead cases in June this year.
However, News International is believed to prefer settling the claims rather than going to court and having the details discussed in front of the media and public.
News International will also be under pressure from News Corporation shareholders in New York to get the phone-hacking scandal out of the way ahead of the demerger of the company's newspaper business, expected this summer, as it could have a toxic effect on the share price.
As part of the demerger, News International will be hived off with Murdoch's other newspaper titles and other publishing assets to a separate publicly listed company, headed by former Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thomson, who is in London this week to lay the groundwork for the float.
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