The Daily Mail receives up to 400 pictures of Pippa Middleton a day from picture agencies and freelance photographers, the paper's picture editor has told the Leveson inquiry.

Pippa Middleton has been the subject of intense media attention since she was bridesmaid at her sister Kate's wedding to Prince William in April last year. Live coverage of the event was broadcast around the world.

However, Paul Silva said that since the royal wedding the Daily Mail does not use the avalanche of photos it receives from outside suppliers, as there is "no reason, no justification" for publishing pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge's sister every time she leaves her house to go for a coffee.

Silva told Lord Justice Leveson on Wednesday that the paper has adopted a policy of not using pictures of Middleton going about her everyday business.

"There is no reason to photograph her when she is out and about doing her own thing," he said. "At the moment there are nine or 10 agencies outside her house [on any given day]. If she goes to get coffee, she goes back into her house, we get 300 to 400 pictures … There is no justification for using them."

Silva added that the Daily Mail does use pictures of Middleton if she attends an event at which permission has been given for photographs to be taken.

He was also asked by the counsel to the inquiry, Robert Jay QC, why the paper sent photographers to the house of Ting Lan Hong, the mother of Hugh Grant's child, in the autumn.

Hong took out an injunction in November claiming to have been harassed by photographers following the birth of her daughter. In a written judgment on the high court judge's reasons for granting the injunction, Hong said there were sometimes as many as 10 or more people camped outside her house and she was pursued when she went out in her car.

Speaking of the period before the injunction was granted, Silva replied that the birth was in the public domain after an agent confirmed it.

"There was no inclination in that statement that there was a privacy problem or a problem ahead. A story breaks, we then go to their home, we ask them to pose up, if they say no we'll move on and go away," Silva said. "It was a major showbiz story of great interest to our readers."

He added that "in an ideal world it would have been nice if Hugh issued a picture" so that the paper did not have to send its own photographer.

Later, when it became clear the Grant and Hong were upset about the photographers outside the house, Silva said the Daily Mail's staff photographer was given instructions to move down the road, some way away from the residence.

Jay asked why the Mail did not go through the "proper channels" and wait for the green light from Grant before sending a photographer to his house. Silva replied: "That's the way we've done it for years."

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