Handful of lawyers in Victoria informant case

Victoria's police commissioner has rejected reports six lawyers acted as informants on the eve of a royal commission into the legal scandal that has rocked the state.

A barrister known as 'Lawyer X' was one of a handful of Melbourne's legal fraternity to dish dirt on their clients in a practice labelled "unethical".

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said reports of six lawyers being involved were incorrect.

"It's not a case of us having six other lawyers who were running around as human sources for Victoria Police," he told ABC radio today.

The royal commission's scope was widened after police revealed Lawyer X - also known as informer 3838 - was first recruited in 1995, not 2005 as previously thought, and a number of other lawyers were also used as informants.

Mr Ashton said police provided information to corruption watchdog IBAC about six people, but repeated that they were not all lawyers.

He added there were other informants aside from lawyers who held obligations of confidentiality.