McCullough Review into PSNI spying on journalists and lawyers delayed

The publication of a review into spying and electronic surveillance by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) on journalists, lawyers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has been delayed by a month.

The McCullough Review was set up in June last year after it emerged that the PSNI had unlawfully monitored the phones of journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney after they exposed police collusion with paramilitary groups in a documentary film.

Angus McCullough KC, who is leading the review, originally intended to present a report to the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) on 4 September, but has pushed the timetable back by a month. A draft version of the report was sent to the chief constable of the PSNI, Jon Boutcher, on 25 July 2025.

“Taking account of the time needed to complete the steps leading to finalisation, and the undesirability of these being unduly compressed, after discussions involving the chief constable and the NIPB it is now proposed that the report will be available to the board in advance of their meeting on 2 October 2025 and published by the chief constable very shortly thereafter,” McCullough said in a statement.

Boutcher commissioned the independent review of police surveillance of journalists, lawyers and civil society groups following allegations that police unlawfully obtained phone data from “troublemaker” journalists.

More than 40 journalists and lawyers, including Computer Weekly, submitted evidence to the review, which covers allegations of PSNI surveillance over 14 years between January 2011 and December 2024, according to a January progress report.

Chief constable Boutcher disclosed last year that the PSNI had placed more than 500 lawyers and 300 journalists under surveillance.

The PSNI also made 10 applications to use covert powers to identify journalists’ confidential sources between 2021 and March 2024.

Evidence later disclosed at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal showed that over four months in 2011, the Metropolitan Police monitored more than 4,000 phone calls and text messages of journalists, including more than a dozen BBC journalists working for BBC Northern Ireland’s investigative TV series Spotlight.

Former BBC journalists Vincent Kearney and Chris Moore have filed separate complaints to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which is investigating allegations that the PSNI and MI5 unlawfully spied on their phone communications.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found in December 2024 that the PSNI and the Metropolitan Police unlawfully placed Belfast journalists McCaffrey and Birney under surveillance, and awarded damages to the journalists.