We are closing the live page - so here's a round up of the main points from today:

• A report reveals details about the use of surveillance against journalists by the Police Service of Northern Ireland
• It was compiled by the London-based barrister Angus McCullough KC, and he examined PSNI practices between 2011 and 2024 and was given full access to police records
• The report raises concerns about how the Police Service of Northern Ireland used journalists’ phone numbers to check for any leaks of information by its own officers or staff
• It also reveals there were 21 unlawful uses of covert powers to attempt to uncover reporters’ sources – double the figure previously disclosed by the PSNI
• Angus McCullough KC, says he found “no basis for concerns that PSNI surveillance of journalists or lawyers is widespread or systemic”

• Journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, who took legal action after a court found they had been unlawfully spied upon in an attempt to uncover sources, say the report is "the chief constable's version of events"
• PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher accepts the report recommendations and apologises to Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey, saying that although they got it wrong with their case it doesn't mean there is widespread abuse of covert powers

• Journalist Donal MacIntyre says the report raises "grave concerns" about the PSNI's "intrusion" into his work examining the disappearance and death of Noah Donahoe

This live page was written by Eimear Flanagan and Holly Fleck.

Thank you for joining us, goodbye.

Image source, PA

In a statement, the Policing Board says its members have agreed that the report and its findings "are extremely serious".

"Trust between the public, the media, the legal profession and policing institutions is paramount," says its chair Mukesh Sharma.

"This report shines a light on how that has been damaged, and policing now has a job of work to do to restore confidence."

He said the board would wait for a "formal response" from the PSNI chief constable on how the report's recommendations would be implemented before "taking a decision on next steps".

"In terms of those next steps we have ruled nothing in or out at this stage," Mr Sharma added.

Assistant General Secretary for the National Union of Journalists, Séamus Dooley, says it is a "good day" but it is "only another chapter in a long saga and there is much more to do".

He says it is now over to the Secretary of State Hilary Benn and the British Government.

Mr Dooley says looking for forgiveness, having failed to get permission, is not an "acceptable strategy in policing".

He says PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has "probably underestimated" how seriously journalists regard access to their contacts.

"It is not the end," he added.

Daniel Holder, Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), says it should not have taken the McCullough Review "to get to the bottom of PSNI surveillance".

"There is a current oversight mechanism the UK Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office (IPCO) that missed this," he says.

"This was not the mechanism that was supposed to be in place on the back of the Good Friday Agreement."

Mr Holder suggests the PSNI fell short of what was envisaged by the Patten Commission which was set up during the peace process to reform policing in Northern Ireland.

"The Patten Commission had recommended a specific 'Commissioner for Covert Law Enforcement in Northern Ireland' to ensure covert policing techniques were being used within the law," the CAJ director says.

"This unimplemented commitment should now be taken forward."

Human rights organisations Amnesty International and the Committee on the Administration of Justice have written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, to ask him to establish a public inquiry into covert surveillance in Northern Ireland by MI5.

In a joint statement, they said the McCullough Review has identified multiple cases of covert surveillance by the PSNI against journalists and lawyers, including "unlawful actions by the police in breach of the Human Rights Act".

Patrick Corrigan, the Northern Ireland Director of Amnesty International UK, says: "This report exposes a disturbing pattern of unlawful covert surveillance of journalists, with the PSNI showing clear disregard for press freedom and the rule of law.

"The scale of the wrongdoing is alarming, from repeated attempts to identify reporters' sources to covert operations concealed from oversight bodies.

"But questions remain. How far has MI5 gone in unlawfully monitoring journalists in Northern Ireland? A free press simply cannot function under the shadow of state surveillance."

In response to a question from BBC News NI crime and justice correspondent, Julian O'Neill, Mr Boutcher says he doesn't think "blanket searching" of journalist numbers should have occurred.

He says it hasn't occurred since he's been in the position, and it stopped in March 2023. And there was a formal statement in 2024.

Mr Boutcher says he made the decision that those lists will be deleted, and it will not happen again.

He says that it legally can occur but in his view it should only happen when a specific case is involved.

Image source, PSNI

Journalist Donal MacIntyre says the report raises "grave concerns" about the PSNI's "intrusion" into his work examining the disappearance and death of Noah Donahoe.

The body of the 14-year-old schoolboy was found in a storm drain in north Belfast in 2020, almost a week after he went missing and his death is currently the subject of an inquest.

Mr MacIntyre says: "The basis for this dubious PSNI covert operation — apparent concerns in summer 2023 that my investigative activities and social media posts might prejudice the inquest into Noah Donohoe’s death — proved completely unfounded.

"The authorisation for covert surveillance of my accounts was withdrawn after just four months, in November 2023, on the grounds that it was neither justified nor proportionate.

"Indeed, my investigative team has since been thanked by the coroner and his staff for our assistance and only last week I met them in Belfast to discuss how we might continue to support the inquest, which is due to commence in November this year.

"These findings expose profound institutional failings in the PSNI’s approach to covert surveillance and raise grave concerns not only about the intrusion into my work but also about the wider and potentially unchecked use of these powers in Northern Ireland," he adds.

Image source, Getty Images

The investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre says he is "shocked" by some aspects of the PSNI report and "relieved" by others.

Mr MacIntyre was placed under directed surveillance by the PSNI following posts he made on social media while making a documentary about the death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe.

"First, I must say that I am relieved the review confirmed that communications between myself and Noah’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, were not accessed," Mr MacIntyre said in a statement.

He thanks the report's author "for both his work and this assurance" in that regard.

But the journalist adds he was "shocked at the lackadaisical and lamentable processes that led the PSNI to authorise covert surveillance of my social media accounts".

He says the report identified serious failures including the "failure to obtain proper legal advice prior to the Direct Surveillance Application (DSA) of my social media activity".

Mr MacIntyre says the lack of scrutiny and due diligence "undermines the robust checks and balances that should govern the use of covert policing powers".

The chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, which holds the PSNI to account, also welcomes the review.

Mukesh Sharma tells the press conference that the opening up of PSNI systems to the review team was "unprecedented".

"Policing can never be above the law and the public rightly expect they comply with it at all times," he says.

Mr Sharma insists the board has taken "very active steps" to bring transparency to covert surveillance cases since the issue emerged.

He explains the controversy resulted in the Policing Board using the "section 59" power under the Police Northern Ireland Act for the first time.

Section 59 refers to the general duty of a chief constable to report to board, external.

Mr Sharma explains the power was invoked in this case because the chief constable's second report to the board about the phone surveillance issue in June 2024 "did not provide the assurances needed".

The McCullough Review was then commissioned as a result of a need for further assurance.

The report says there are another 20 examples of unlawful communications data.

Mr Birney says there will be "multiple cases" going through the investigatory powers which are "very slow, very methodical and very complex cases".

"For such a small percentage of the population we seem to have something very, very wrong.

"And I think that is something to do with the culture of impunity at the PSNI, it can mislead a high court," he says.

"It can fail to disclose the IPT (Investigatory Powers Tribunal), and this report doesn't deal with that."

He says until that is dealt with, himself and Mr McCaffrey will continue to talk about surveillance of journalists.

Mr McCaffrey says they are told that the defensive operation, or "washing-through" is to "catch dodgy police officers".

But he questions when it changed to "target journalists and their sources".

"Why did the police need to know who a journalist source is? Is it a criminal act for a journalist to have sources?"

He says the investigation should be "wider" and "beyond the policing board", and Secretary of State Hilary Benn could "put the public confidence back in policing" by launching a public inquiry.

"There could be and there must be a public inquiry."

Image source, PA Media

BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme has been hearing from the two Belfast journalists, Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney, who took legal action after a court found they had been unlawfully spied upon in an attempt to uncover sources.

Mr Birney says while they "welcome" the report, their lawyers have not had a chance to "cross-examine the PSNI" and "to review those documents, to really get into them, examine them and test them, and test them against the law".

He says that this is "the chief constable's version of events".

Mr Boutcher says "sunlight truly is the best disinfectant" as it ensures they improve where they need to.

He says no evidence exists of the abuse of powers by the PSNI, but that PSNI processes and application of powers needs to improve, and he says he can assure the public that that will happen.

Mr Boutcher says just because they got it wrong with Mr Birney and Mr McCaffrey it does not mean there has been widespread abuse of covert powers.

He says the report makes this clear, and he does not believe there are grounds for a public inquiry.

Mr Boutcher says the recommendations will be advanced through a "timely programme of work" to achieve the highest of standards in the application and authorisation of covert measures.

He says the wider concerns of perceived systemic abuse of their use of covert measures can be traced back to an investigation into journalists Barry McCaffrey and Trevor Birney where the actions were found to be unlawful.

He says he "profusely apologises" for that and is certain that the officers involved in their investigation would act differently today.

Mr Boutcher says journalism is "incredibly important" and has "provided the truth when it has been out of reach to victims".

"Good journalism holds government and the establishment to account, including the police. It should be nurtured, not obstructed," Mr Boucher adds.

The PSNI chief constable says he welcomes the report's "key conclusion that there is no basis for public concerns that the PSNI has been using covert measures in respect of journalists or lawyers in a widespread or systematic way".

But he adds that as "with any such forensic review, deficiencies were found".

He says these resulted in the report's author making some "incredibly insightful recommendations" which would all be implemented.

The PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher thanks Angus McCullough and his team "for the rigorous and professional review that they've carried out."

"I welcome their findings and absolutely and entirely accept all 16 recommendations they've made."

Mr Boutcher adds that the review team were given "direct, unrestricted and unsupervised access to PSNI systems and staff".

Mr McCullough describes the arrest of the two journalist and surveillance of their suspected source as a "triggering event".

"It is clear to me that this disturbing episode has been a major cause of loss of trust in the police in this area," he adds.

The report's author says it was of "vital importance that public confidence is maintained in the police and in the processes by which officers conduct covert operations and surveillance".

Mr McCullough highlights what he calls the "headlines" of the review.

First, assertions that the PSNI have been conducting systemic wholesale surveillance of journalists and lawyers are misplaced - he says the detailed searches have provided no support for concerns at that scale.

Second, where covert measures are being deployed in relation to the groups under review, they are largely being "lawfully" applied.

The report includes a detailed breakdown of the application, authorisation and investigation in each category to understand the ways the powers can be exercised and to show how he has reached the conclusion that they are being "appropriately exercised".

Third, he says, any proper understanding of what the PSNI has and has not been doing in relation to areas within Mr McCullough's remit "requires specificity in the identification of the particular covert powers involved and understanding the nature of those".

Fourth, Mr McCullough says obtaining communications data is the most widely used covert measure.

He says it does not involve accessing the content of any communications, and technically does not constitute surveillance.

He says it is intrusive but far-less intrusive than other covert powers.

More of Mr McCullough's findings can be found here., external

Mr McCullough KC says there are some cases under "continuing consideration" by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), and they fall outside his remit, until they have concluded.

These cases were excluded from the remit of the review.

He says some relevant IPT cases have concluded and have "fallen back" into his remit.

One person withdrew their IPT claim so that it could be included in this review.

He says it did not seem to be appropriate or in the public interest to delay the publication of the report as IPT cases are considered.