Sue Gray

“ Many private sector businesses and other organisations, large and small, all over the UK, were also working hard to deal with the pandemic both in terms of managing their businesses, their livelihoods and those of their employees, as well as providing vital support to the national effort to respond to the virus. A small number of Government officials and special advisers, because of the nature of their jobs directly supporting the Prime Minister and other Ministers, continued to attend their offices for the purposes of work, as permitted by an exemption under the regulations. ”

“ The excessive consumption of alcohol is not appropriate in a professional workplace at any time. Steps must be taken to ensure that every Government Department has a clear and robust policy in place covering the consumption of alcohol in the workplace. The use of the garden at No 10 Downing Street should be primarily for the Prime Minister and the private residents of No 10 and No 11 Downing Street. During the pandemic it was often used as an extension of the workplace as a more covid secure means of holding group meetings in a ventilated space. ”

“ Against the backdrop of the pandemic, when the Government was asking citizens to accept far-reaching restrictions on their lives, some of the behaviour surrounding these gatherings is difficult to justify. ”

“ The context I set out in my update remains key to this report and findings and for completeness I have repeated that summary here. The outbreak and spread of SARs Covid-19 represented a global public health crisis without parallel in living memory. In the United Kingdom it had a seismic impact on every aspect of life in the country. In response, to help control the spread of the virus and to keep the most vulnerable safe, the UK Government put in place far reaching restrictions on citizens that had direct and material impact on their lives, livelihood and liberties. ”

“ Guidance encourages those who cannot work from home to go back to work. At work, social distancing advice applies with workplaces required "to avoid crowding and minimise opportunities for the virus to spread by maintaining a distance of at least 2 metres (3 steps) between individuals wherever possible"
1 June 2020: England moves to "step 2" of the government's roadmap in which restrictions on leaving one's home are removed. Gatherings of two or more persons indoors and more than six outdoors are prohibited. ”

“ You are free to: copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information; adapt the Information; exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application. ”

“ There was some internal discussion about the event between Martin Reynolds, Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, and Lee Cain, the No 10 Director of Communications. On 12 June there was an exchange of WhatsApp messages between the two that read:
[Martin Reynolds] [18:31] "No 10 official (1) ’s leaving drinks next week - can we discuss handling!"
[Lee Cain] [18:32] "Yes - not sure how we do it but want to do something"
[Martin Reynolds] [19:01] "Is it safer to do a larger event indoors but with some people carrying on outside afterwards?" ”

“ Shortly before 21.30, there were over 20 people present in the garden, with a number of bottles of alcohol.
A number of individuals gathered near a child's swing/slide in the garden, damaging it by leaning on and playing with it. This was noticed the next morning and reported to No 10 staff.
At this time, the custodian staff at No 10 continued to lock down the building. They noted that groups of individuals had gone into the garden. The group began to break up and return into the main building at around 21.30. ”

“ A No 10 official sent a message to one of the WhatsApp groups at 19.49 stating ’prize giving now guys, return’. The investigation was informed that this was an extension of the type of awards ceremony which might take place on ’Wine Time Friday’. Those present gathered together at the meeting table in the small area outside the main Press Office. Awards certificates were handed out to staff by Jack Doyle, a senior special adviser. ”