Police and justice ministry officials tapped 13,223 telephones in the first six months of this year, 80% of them mobile phones, justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin told MPs on Tuesday, according to news agency ANP.

On average, 2,254 phones were being listened in to on any given day, compared with 1,946 per day in 2008.
The figure does not include the number of taps operated by the security services, which is considered to be a state secret.
The Netherlands sanctions more phone taps per head of population than any other country in the world. For example, US officials sanctioned just 2,208 phone taps last year and the UK 1,881.