Ms Oonagh McPhillips:

I think there are two different categories of advice, to be fair. The email of 15 May is an email based on a conversation with an official. It gives an account of a conversation with an official in the Attorney General's office. Obviously, that is not legal advice per se. Subsequently, within the past couple of weeks, the current Attorney General has advised on this matter. What he said was that his advice would be consistent with the view expressed in that email of 15 May. There is legal advice from the Attorney General's office on this issue. The letter of 15 May does not constitute legal advice in and of itself but it constitutes a view expressed by the Attorney General's office, and the official who had received the phone call, who is also legally qualified and very experienced, agreed with that view.