Member's statement: McCullough Review
Member's statement by Mr Gerry Kelly on .
- MLA
- Mr Gerry Kelly
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 29 September 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- McCullough Review
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5138760
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Let me begin by stating that I am a member of the Policing Board, but I do not speak for it today. The McCullough review report sets out a stark assessment of the PSNI's practices around the surveillance of journalists, lawyers and others. Sinn Féin welcomes the depth of his work in uncovering the scale of activity and also recognises the limitations of what he could access. It is now clear that some elements of the PSNI's defensive operations include:
"two specific periods in which there was wholesale cross-checking of police communication systems against a list of journalists' telephone numbers".
Those were unnecessary, disproportionate and, therefore, unlawful. The report identified 24 applications that appear to have been made with the purpose of identifying journalists' sources. The applications relate to nine investigations that involve 1,014 telephone numbers. The deliberate use of covert intelligence to identify journalistic sources, and surveillance activity in and around court buildings, are particularly egregious. Policing can never be above the law. Recognising the gravity of what has been revealed, the Policing Board, on a cross-community basis, has treated this as a section 59 report from the Chief Constable, which is unprecedented and underlines the seriousness of the failings identified. There is much more to consider in the 200-page report, including lack of disclosure and candour. Public trust, especially among those targeted, has been badly damaged. That trust will only be rebuilt by firm, transparent and time-bound accountability. The Chief Constable has stated that there are no criminal and no misconduct issues. However, given the gravity of these issues, it is my view that the Policing Board should follow through with a section 60 inquiry under the Police (NI) Act 2000 to fully examine the issues that have arisen in the section 59 report that we have received. I believe that we need the whole truth to restore public confidence in policing. Sinn Féin also believes that implementing Patten's recommendation number 40 on enhanced oversight — that there should be a commissioner for covert law enforcement in the North — would add a layer of scrutiny and could be a practical safeguard against further unlawful practices.
358 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.07 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.03 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.04 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.94 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.07 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.69 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.18 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.06 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.04 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.02 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:17 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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