The following statement should be attributed to Policing Board Chair Mukesh Sharma:
“The Board welcomes the McCullough Review which provides a detailed assessment of the activities and actions of the PSNI in respect of the surveillance of journalists, lawyers and others of special status.
The Board welcomes the approach taken by the Chief Constable and his senior team in relation to the commissioning of this report and the access afforded to the Reviewer. We acknowledge that the opening up of this aspect of policing in this way is unprecedented.
The Report outlines practices that represent failures by policing in meeting the strict legislative provisions for the use of surveillance powers, and complying with the principles of accountability, proportionality and respect for press freedom. It raises particular questions around the efficacy of the systems used by the PSNI and the impact this has had on the candour with which the PSNI has engaged in scrutiny and accountability processes by external reviewers; authorising procedures and the accountability of authorising officers; the adequacy of existing oversight by appointed reviewers; and disclosure processes to tribunal proceedings, and with other statutory bodies including the Policing Board.
The police necessarily have access to powers, including intrusive powers, to keep us all safe. However, necessarily there must be protections and safeguards for their use. Policing can never be above the law, the public rightly expect that they comply with it at all times. The Report, and its recommendations, also sends an important message to other policing and law enforcement institutions who use such powers.
Since the issues around surveillance first came to light in 2023, very active steps have been taken by the Policing Board to try to bring openness and transparency to media and other concerns being raised through cases at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
In June 2024, the Chief Constable’s second report to the Board did not provide the assurance needed, and we clearly told the Chief Constable it did not. As a result of the Board’s ongoing scrutiny, the Chief Constable commissioned the McCullough Review, and the Board subsequently agreed that this report would be treated as a Section 59 report, under the Police NI Act 2000 legislation. So serious was the issue viewed, that for the first time the Board opted to use this Section 59 power.
Yesterday, the Board convened a special meeting with Mr McCullough and with the Chief Constable, to have an initial discussion on the findings and the conduct of the review against the terms of reference that were set.
The Board now wishes to take some more time to review the Report’s findings, and to receive a formal response from the Chief Constable on remedial action and plans for formal implementation of the recommendations now made, before taking a decision on next steps.
We want to ensure, as the report says, that our next steps will enable PSNI to achieve consistently high standards in this area of policing and to enable confidence in PSNI conduct in this area. In terms of those next steps we have ruled nothing in or out at this stage.
The Board wanted the report to be published as soon as possible so that there is transparency on what has been found.
Trust between the public, the media, the legal profession and policing institutions is paramount. This Report shines a light on how that has been damaged, and policing now has a job of work to do to restore confidence.
The Board is agreed that this Report and its findings are extremely serious and will now seek to ensure the step change outlined by the Chief Constable in our meeting yesterday remains a key focus for the service until it is delivered.
As a Board we thank Mr McCullough and his team for their work in progressing the review and the recommendations made to date. We also thank the Group of External Stakeholders for their assistance.
As already stated, the Board will now convene a meeting to consider this matter further.”
Notes to editors
A copy of the McCullough Review report can be found on the McCullough Review website. McCULLOUGH-REVIEW-REPORT-published-24.9.25.pdf
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