David Cameron was “too close” to senior media figures, a former cabinet secretary has told the Leveson Inquiry.Lord O’Donnell said he agreed with comments made by David Cameron on his relationships with editors and proprietors. In a BBC interview earlier this year, the prime minister admitted he had become too close to newspaper proprietors and executives, including those at News International.O’Donnell, who was also press secretary to John Major, told the inquiry: “I think the Prime Minister himself, the current Prime Minister, has said that he felt his relationships had got too close, and I agree with him.”Last week Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, revealed Cameron had commiserated her after her resignation from the company last year and signed text messages "lol" - meaning "lots of love".O'Donnell said politicians should be prepared to publish all meetings with editors and proprietors, including social events.He added: “Truth is, all politicians come into politics having developed a social circle already. They have friends... I’ve taken the view that we should define the line at fairly senior proprietors and senior editors. I think they are different because of the ability of newspapers to very strongly support particular political parties, so I think there is something to be said for those things being notesd in a transparent way, but they shouldn’t be stopped.“If it is just social and that’s all there is to it, then transparency is the answer. If you get down to the stage of saying actually this is something were going to monitor incredibly closely who said what and we want a record of your social interactions, I think that gets into the ridiculous area, and obviously then you would get into the work of the just shunt things into the unregulated part.“Again I think it just goes back to the Ministerial Code, the question of not just reality but perceptions, and I think by publishing them all, we can be clear that – hopefully we’ll influence perceptions and show minsters feel they have nothing to hide in these interactions.”O’Donnell was also asked about Jeremy Hunt and News Corporations bid for BSkyB, having previously said comments allegedly made by the Culture Secretary, relayed by his special advisor Adam Smith to the company, did not amount to pre-judgment of the deal. O’Donnell said the information should have been passed on to all parties involved in the bid.He added: “I would have expected the minister to be clear about what he thought his special advisor should be doing. Particularly I think the minister and the permanent secretary will make clear what the nature of engagement should be – if we’re going to use the shorthand – in a quasi-judicial procedure, absolutely."Talking about the process is fine but you should make sure that the same information is passed on to all parties in a case. Fairness is absolutely crucial to what happened. And that should be at the heat of the whole process, that everyone should be clear that that’s the way they should operate.”The former cabinet secretary was asked to comment on evidence given by former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who told the inquiry he held shares in News Corporation worth £40,000 while working as press secretary at Number 10, and had failed to disclose the interest properly.O’Donnell added: “A form was signed but it didn’t disclose the shareholding, and it should have done."He went to say the close relationship between some senior police officers and the press had worried him, telling the inquiry he met with then-commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson over potential leaks from the cash-for-honours investigation, headed by assistant commissioner John Yates.He added: “I raised this issue of there seemed to be certain information which related to a police investigation, a police interview and some politicians. This frequently became public and the question was where was this information coming from. I simply asked Sir Paul Stephenson would he kindly look into the issue, because I didn’t believe the leaks were happening at my end.“[Yates] was doing this investigation so in a sense I wasn’t necessarily saying that it was him, I was just saying it was an area that he was in charge of and could Sir Paul Stephenson look into that area... it was quite apparent to me that a number of senior police officers had very strong links with the media, and they were very close, and in my view, I would say too close.”Bob Quick, former chief constable of Surrey Police, previously told the inquiry Yates had resisted an attempt to examine his phone records, to establish the source of the leaks. Quick, who led two reviews into the investigation, said Yates told him “I am very well connected” when he attempted to audit the records, and was unable to establish where the leak had come from.O’Donnell said he felt the Milly Dowler phone hacking revelations, and the failure of the Press Complaints Commission to investigate hacking allegations, had dented the public confidence in the press. He recommended that his successors in the civil service consider ammending the Ministerial Code once the Leveson Inquiry has published a report of its findings.Lord Justice Leveson replied: “Ultimately, everything that this inquiry generates will be for the government to consider, I hope on the cross-party basis that set up the inquiry in the first place, because if it ceases to be a cross-party effort it becomes much, much less valuable.”Asked about future regulation, O'Donnell suggested the Information Commissioner could oversee the press, as he had proved to be independent and objective when dealing with other issues.