Member's statement: McCullough Review

Member's statement by Mr Jon Burrows on 29 September 2025.

MLA: Mr Jon Burrows
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 29 September 2025
Type: Member's statement
Business: Members' Statements
Heading: McCullough Review
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5138773

Text

I will address the findings of the McCullough review. I am afraid to say that the commentary in the media, by political parties and, indeed, by some firms of solicitors — I will not mention any of them — has been misleading and distorted. Let me be clear: the Ulster Unionist Party believes that a free press is a cornerstone of our democracy and that police surveillance powers should be used with great care, in accordance with the law, should be proportionate and should be used only when necessary. There are some lessons to be learned from the McCullough review, but I very much doubt that all those who have spoken so excessively about its findings have read the report. The McCullough review report clearly states that there was no evidence whatsoever of systemic surveillance of journalists by the PSNI. Mr Kelly said that there were issues with the Police Service's candour. Mr McCullough, an eminent KC, said that he had unfettered access and that everything that he had asked for was given to him. Some things that have been said are simply misleading. There are lessons to be learned from what are called the "defensive operations" used by the police. There is, however, a suggestion that the police were running taps on hundreds of journalists' phones and interrogating them. Perhaps it should not have done this, but the police had numbers that journalists had given to them, which were put in a spreadsheet and checked against officers' call records to see whether they had rung those numbers. The PSNI did not access the journalists' numbers. There is a minor issue about whether the journalists gave the PSNI their numbers for that purpose, but there was no unlawful surveillance of the journalists' phones.
The Alliance Party has called for a public inquiry. In advance of the McCullough review's findings, the Justice Minister said that it would be "premature" to call for a public inquiry, and that we should wait and see what McCullough reported. McCullough reported that there was no systemic surveillance of journalists, but the Alliance Party still calls for a review. It is interesting that two Policing Board members call for a review. My understanding is that the Justice Minister has the power to instigate a public inquiry under the Inquiries Act, so we will see whether she lives up to that power. I will ask her a question later today in that regard. We have heard from Mr Kelly about freedom of the press. He is from the party that leads on slap actions, the party that tried to take — Mr Kelly himself brought the case — the house from Malachi O'Doherty for publishing an article, and the party that has an army of trolls on social media, which creates a chill effect for everybody. We do not need lessons from Mr Kelly on freedom of the press.

482 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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