The police team investigating phone hacking has been boosted from 45 to 60 officers, Scotland Yard has said.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the move came after a "significant increase in the workload" over the past fortnight.
She said there had been a "surge of inquiries and requests for assistance from the public and solicitors".
Earlier, the Met was accused by MPs of a "catalogue of failures" in the News of the World phone-hacking inquiry.
Meanwhile, News of the World owner News International said it had authorised law firm Harbottle & Lewis to answer any questions from Scotland Yard and the Commons home affairs committee about its work for the company.
News International has said a May 2007 letter from the firm had made it believe that hacking was a "matter of the past" and confined to a single rogue reporter.
During Wednesday's House of Commons debate on the phone-hacking scandal, MPs called on News International to publish the full exchanges about e-mails examined by the legal firm.
The law firm had said it was being prevented from responding to "inaccurate" comments made by News International chairman James Murdoch because the company would not allow it breach its duty of client confidentiality.
In other developments in the phone-hacking saga:
Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that "with hindsight" he would not have hired ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief, in the closest he has come to an apology.
Mr Cameron said the public inquiry would be widened to examine broadcasters and social media and named the panel
Downing Street and Buckingham Palace denied claims by Labour MP Chris Bryant that royal officials raised concerns about Mr Coulson's appointment
The protester accused of throwing shaving foam at Rupert Murdoch is charged with a public order offence
Labour MP Nick Raynsford said that, when Mr Coulson was at Downing Street, the cabinet secretary was alerted to evidence of illegal phone hacking, covert surveillance and hostile media briefing against a senior government official - the cabinet secretary later denied it.
Downing Street confirms that the prime minister received and responded to a letter from Labour MP Tom Watson last October, in which he had raised concerns about Mr Coulson
News International's parent company News Corporation has also confirmed it has stopped paying the legal fees of former private detective Glenn Mulcaire, who was convicted of phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World in 2007.
Glenn Mulcaire speaks to journalists outside his house
Responding to the announcement, Mulcaire told the BBC: "As you can appreciate, we're in the middle of a number of inquiries at the moment and it's a very fluent and developing situation.
"The developments have been different from day to day and I have no further comment to make at this stage. However, this may change."
Funding calls
On the hacking probe known as Operation Weeting, Ms Akers said: "I have said all along that I would keep the resources under review and this has led to the increase.
"Similarly, if the demand decreases, I will release officers back to other duties."
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This is excellent news. The extra resources will assist to help move things along much more quickly”
Keith Vaz MP
Home Affairs Committee chairman
Ongoing inquiries and legal cases
Met accused of hacking failures
A Commons home affairs committee report praised Ms Akers' decision that all potential victims of phone hacking by the News of the World should be contacted.
But the MPs said they were "alarmed" only 170 people had so far been informed and noted that "up to 12,800 people may have been affected".
It said that unless more staff were employed on the operation it could be a decade before all the thousands of possible victims were informed.
MPs had called on the government to provide more funds for the police investigation.
They warned that if it dragged on it would "seriously delay" the start of Lord Justice Leveson's public inquiry announced by David Cameron.
The committee's report also blamed News International for obstructing the Met's first inquiry into hacking but said there was no "real will" on the part of Scotland Yard to tackle the news group's failure to co-operate.
After Ms Akers' announcement, home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz said: "This is excellent news. The extra resources will assist to help move things along much more quickly."
'Brushed aside'
The prime minister made a statement as the Commons sat for an extra day after the MPs' summer recess was delayed to address the latest developments in the hacking scandal.
Mr Cameron told the Commons the police inquiry would now be overseen by a figure from outside the Met.
Ms Akers gave evidence to MPs about Operation Weeting earlier this month
The prime minister said: "The responsibilities of the deputy commissioner - which the House will remember include general oversight of the vital investigations both into hacking and into the police, Operations Weeting and Elveden - will not be done by someone from inside the Met, but instead by Bernard Hogan-Howe, who will join temporarily from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary."
In the Lords, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Doocey said she raised concerns in February about meetings between senior police officers and News of the World executives.
Baroness Doocey, a member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said her concerns were "brushed aside by the Met".
Government culture spokeswoman Baroness Rawlings said the Met was carrying out an investigation and the issue would be considered by the Leveson inquiry.
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