Overview

• The report, covering January 2011 to November 2024, says reviewer Angus McCullough KC had full access to PSNI records and personnel and received 55 submissions.
• Investigators identified 24 communications‑data applications aimed at uncovering journalistic sources, with 21 approved across nine investigations, within a wider total of 378 applications relating to journalists.
• The discontinued “washing through” practice cross‑checked a list of more than 380 journalists’ numbers against PSNI records and ended operationally in March 2023, with a formal halt in May 2024.
• Specific surveillance included a directed surveillance authorisation focused on Donal MacIntyre’s public X posts, one further instance targeting another journalist, and two instances involving a lawyer, including activity of concern within a court building.
• The review makes 16 recommendations such as consolidating authorising units and commissioning a supplementary report, and it notes retained digital files from 2018 device seizures of Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney that appear to breach IPT orders, against a backdrop of prior IPT rulings and MI5 admissions.