The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Metropolitan Police have also made concessions.

Amnesty International has said the report ‘exposes a disturbing pattern of unlawful covert surveillance of journalists’.

But the McCullough Review has identified more than 20 attempts made by the police service to identify journalists’ sources.

Vincent Kearney complained to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.

The corporation’s lawyers are to write to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal about the alleged surveillance of former reporter Vincent Kearney.