Full coverage as the Daily Mail editor, Paul McCartney's ex-wife and the PR veteran give evidence at the press standards inquiry
10.35am: Lyons is asked about his new website, mrpaparazzi.com, which invites the public to submit their own photographs. He describes it in his witness statement as "the future".
Patry Hoskins says it might be said that encouraging the public to whip out their phones and take photographs of celebrities could be seen as incitement to invade someone's privacy.
Lyons says if he has any doubt about a picture, if it was "unethical or suspicious in any way", he won't publish.
10.33am: Lyons repeats that the situation is very unclear. One day a celebrity will invite photographers into their home; the next day they will complain of being photographed walking down the street.
10.31am: Lyons reveals that – like Gary Morgan of Splash Pictures, who gave evidence earlier this week – he has a "no-shoot list" but this list is based on legal cases. He says he will supply the inquiry with the list.
10.30am: Lyons says PR people for famous stars such as Mariah Carey and Paris Hilton phone him as soon as they are in town to say "she's staying here, she's staying there, they want the publicity".
10.29am: The Guardian's head of media and technology, Dan Sabbagh, has just tweeted:
10.28am: Lyons says the situation isn't clear cut – sometimes a celebrity like Lily Allen will be snapped looking lovely on the beach and she won't complain and on another ocassion she will.
Often he says they want to be photographed because it boosts their PR around the world and some go as far as "taking cash with the photographers on a regular basis".
If it's on their terms it's fine but if they've done the wrong thing or it's immoral and that's been recorded in history; they've been photographed they don't like it … the problem is when you are photographing someone famous these days you don't now if it's right or wrong.
Others will pick and chose the times when they are promoting their record or TV show or their movie.
10.25am: Lyons asked about a complaint about photographs of JK Rowling and her children.
Lyons say the pictures were taken of Rowling walking down a public street in Scotland. He says he felt there was no problem at the time and the pictures were available for use two or three years before the author's complaint.
The image was downloaded from an archive and used in the Sunday Express several years later, when the complaint arose.
10.24am: Lyons is asked about a privacy action taken by Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley, who accepted £58,000 over invasion of privacy when photographers took pictures of them when on holiday on a private resort.
Lyons remembers the court case, but only "very vaguely".
10.20am: Lyons is now being asked about photographs of Sienna Miller on a boat in St Tropez.
Lyons says photographers have been taking pictures of celebrities in the Med on "since Brigitte Bardot was sunning herself on the beaches of St Tropez ... It was normal practice."
If the photograph shows the celebrity in a good light, they won't necessarily go "legal", she said but if it "suits" them they will.
10.19am: The Guardian's head of media and technology, Dan Sabbagh, has just tweeted:
10.16am: Patry Hoskins notes that there has been a string of injunctions and complaints made against Big Pictures over the past two years. She asks if any Big Pictures photographers have been disciplined.
Lyons says he will have to take "secondary advice" as to whether anybody at Big Pictures has been disciplined.
He adds he is rarely in the office but trusts his management to take action if needed. He is currently filming show in Australia for four months.
10.14am: Patry Hoskins moves on to the injunction sought by Amy Winehouse. Every time she got in the car she was chased, she was jostled, said her manager at the time.
"I am extremely familiar [with that] and it wasn't my company," says Lyons. "It was photographers using the name of my company and it happens on a regular basis."
He said he spoke to Winehouse's manager and got an apology; he was subsequently invited to take exclusive shots of her.
Lyons adds that the agency often works with celebrities and they get a high cut of pictures sold.
10.12am: Lyons is asked an injunction taken out by Lily Allen against Big Pictures and another agency.
He doesn't recall the incident the inquiry is talking about and says he is sorry he can't help.
10.09am: Leveson asks Lyons when his attitude changed.
"I don't think it has changed," he says.
He refers to the car shots of Prince Charles and Camilla in December 2010 when the royal-Rolls Royce came under attack from student fees rioters in central London. The car was kicked, rocked and hit with paint bombs.
10.08am: Lyons is asked about a time when he was outside the Portland Hospital in London after the Duchess of York arrived to give birth to her first child. he explains in his book that he didn't know the "car technique" and got a quick lesson from a colleague.
The technique, he said was to "run at the car" and then "crash bang wallop" with a lens.
He says this incident was 25 years ago; if he hadn't got the car shot he wouldn't have been employed by a newspaper again. He says things are different now.
10.03am: Patry Hoskins refers to another article in May 2009 about Amy Winehouse winning a case against photographers.
"As for Sienna Miller now, I don't go near her now, and we throw away photographs of her," Lyons is quoted as saying in the article, but he goes on to question why he should not be able to snap a shot of Miller on a boat in the Mediterranean when she was allegedly involved with a married man.
The articles and images which Miller sued over included coverage of the actor's alleged relationship with Balthazar Getty soon after she broke off a relationship with Welsh actor Rhys Ifans.
10.01am: Miller was awarded £53,000 in damages and costs as part of a 2008 settlement that included a ban on Big Picture photographers following her or chasing her in a car.
"Do you recall that now?" asks Hoskins? "Yes," says Lyons.
9.58am: The inquiry is now discussion proceedings brought by Sienna Miller in 2009. She sued Big Pictures for harassment and invasion of privacy.
Lyons says he "wasn't in charge of that particular action". He remembers a claim but not that specific claim, he says.
9.56am: Lyons is asked about car chases.
"If there have been any incidents, my management would be pulling them in," he says. He adds he can't be responsible for the way photographs are taken in countries such as France.
9.55am: Lyons is asked about whether he would be happy to take a photograph taken by a paparazzi chasing a subject in a car.
A passage in Lyons's book Mr Paparazzi says "I hope people realise that chasing for pictures has always happened."
He says if someone hasn't broken the law, it would be fine to take such a photo.
9.51am: There is "no Big Pictures code of practice, no manual governing employees", says Lyons.
"The employed photographers know … exactly what is expected of them," he says, adding that they work to "PCC guidelines". He says he hasn't had much time to "look over the documentation" but photographers have to make a judgment, guided by the management back at HQ.
He says he has no reason to believe his photographers breach the PCC code.
9.48am: The Guardian's Roy Greenslade has reported that PCC director Stephen Abell, who gave evidence to the inquiry next week, is to leave the watchdog. Greenslade reports:
Stephen Abell, director of the Press Complaints Commission for the last two years, is leaving. He will leave at the end of the month.
His departure, which has been under discussion for some time, is unsurprising given that the PCC will almost certainly be reconstituted.
Abell, who has spent more than 10 years with the commission, has been in charge during its most difficult period, culminating in the controversy over phone hacking.
He oversaw the early departure of its previous chair, Lady Buscombe, and has worked alongside her successor, Lord Hunt, since his arrival in October last year.
Hunt said he and Abell had agreed that they would work together until they "were in a position to propose a new structure for self-regulation of the press."
You can read the full story here.
9.46am: Lyons says Big Pictures "turns over 3,000 to 3,500 pictures a day".
He is being asked what kind of photographs, if any would he object.
Extreme nudity, extreme situations where we felt the photographer had crossed the line; whether it was taken on private property – those kind of examples would stick out like sore thumbs to us.
Leveson asks where the line is. Lyon replies: "the PCC line".
9.44am: The Guardian's Josh Halliday, who is at the Royal Courts of Justice, has just tweeted:
9.42am: Lyons says the freelance photographers aren't regulated. They go out and get their own stories and images, and Big Pictures makes a decision.
Freelancers, he adds, are not his agency's responsibility. They submit material to various newspapers, magazines and companies.
9.41am: Lyons used to be a freelance photographer. He has appeared on a BBC documentary on about the paparazzi and says he has no problem with the term.
"It's only another word in the English language," he says.
He employs 10 or 12 staff photographers but has more than 150 freelancers working for him worldwide.
9.38am: The Leveson hearing has begun and Darryn Lyons of Big Pictures is the first witness.
He is on a video link from Australia and is being questioned by the junior counsel to the inquiry, Carine Patry Hoskins.
9.37am: Here's the latest on the Hugh Grant v Paul Dacre spat – the Guardian's David Leigh has this report.
The row between Hugh Grant and the Daily Mail's editor, Paul Dacre, took a further turn on Wednesday, when the celebrity actor said he had uncovered evidence of misbehaviour by Associated Newspapers.
In a fresh statement published on the Leveson inquiry website, Grant said he had obtained letters contradicting several aspects of the Mail's version of the way it had tracked down and "persistently hounded" Tinglan Hong, the mother of his newly born daughter.
Mail reporters pretended to have a parcel to deliver in order to get details of a lettings agency linked to the mother's former address, according to a statement obtained by Grant.
The letting agency denied subsequently handing over Hong's mobile number, which the paper obtained.
Westminster register office also denies the Mail's claim that its staff had subsequently handed over details of the baby's birth, supplied privately by the hospital.
Grant says in his witness statement to Leveson that it could have been illegal for the register office to supply such details.
9.36am: Heather Mills is already trending on Twitter.
9.32am: All eyes will be on Heather Mills today.
She volunteered to make an appearance after the former Mirror editor Piers Morgan admitted he had listened to a message Sir Paul McCartney left on his then wife's mobile phone - but refused to reveal his source.
During a tense exchange during his testimony in December, Lord Justice Leveson said the only people "lawfully" entitled to listen to the message were Mills or somebody authorised on her behalf to listen to it.
Mills later issued a statement saying she never disclosed private voicemail messages from her ex-husband to morgan
Mills said Morgan was using her as a "scapegoat".
The episode was revealed in a column written by Morgan for the Daily Mail in 2006, about the acrimonious divorce of McCartney and Mills.
Morgan recounted how he had been played the "heart-breaking" voicemail message years earlier, in which the former Beatle begged his then wife to come home after a row and sang We Can Work It Out into the answerphone.
9.30am: Welcome to the Leveson inquiry live blog – note the inquiry starts at 9.30am today.
It's the final day of the first module and it's promising to be box office with Sir Paul McCartney's ex wife Heather Mills in to answer questions on that recording.
The other witness of big interest today is Ian Edmondson, the former news chief of News of World although questions on phone hacking are likely to be off limits as he was arrested last April on suspicion of conspiring to unlawfully intercept communications.
Also on today is Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – recalled to answer questions about his decision to accuse Hugh Grant of trying to spread "mendacious smears" about his company.
PR veteran Max Clifford is also scheduled to appear as is Darryn Lyons, the owner of picture agency Big Pictures and the NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet, who is expected to be questioned about the submissions by anonymous journalists.
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