A WOMAN HAS been arrested in England as part of the investigation into phone-hacking at News International.

The 31-year-old is currently being questioned at a Northumberland police station. She is being held in connection with conspiring to intercept communications, according to Scotland Yard.

The woman, who the BBC is identifying as former News of the World reporter Bethany Usher, is the seventeenth person to be arrested in connection with the hacking investigation, named Operation Weeting.

Usher is now a senior lecturer in media and journalism at Teesside University, the Guardian.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson were also arrested in connection to the inquiry, however no charges have yet been made against anyone.

Operation Weeting is concerned with the phone-hacking scandal, while Operation Elveden is investigating corrupt police payments and Operation Tuleta is examining computer hacking, according to journalism.co.uk.

The practice of phone-hacking at News International led to the closure of the News of the World newspaper this year, and also sparked the ongoing Leveson inquiry into media ethics. Watch the Leveson inquiry here>