Partygate: Met Police issue 30 more Downing Street lockdown fines
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A police probe into lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street and Whitehall is expected to result in at least 30 additional fines.
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Partygate: Met Police issue 30 more Downing Street lockdown fines.
At least 30 extra penalties have been handed by police for violations of shutdown laws at gatherings in Whitehall and Downing Street. This comes on top of the 20 fines sent out last month.
The Met Police are not disclosing who will be fined or what events may result in a fine. Downing Street, on the other hand, has stated that it will clarify whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson and top civil servant Simon Case are among the recipients.
Read more: UK ministers refuse to reveal Partygate photographs
Those who get fines have 28 days to pay or dispute the police decision. If they oppose the fine, police will investigate and either remove the punishment or take the case to court.
The police said in a statement that they were "making every attempt to move this investigation forward as quickly as possible." This is the second set of fines police have announced as part of their ongoing inquiry.
The first occurred on March 29, when police stated that they had issued 20 penalties, sometimes known as fixed-penalty notices. The authorities are looking into 12 gatherings that may have violated Covid lockdown restrictions on government premises, including at least three that Johnson attended.
They sent out over 100 questionnaires as part of their investigation to inquire about people's participation in the events.
Read more: Partygate: Top staff to be involved in Sue Gray report
Following reports of gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall during the pandemic, numerous Conservative MPs demanded that the prime minister quit.
Among those who have already received penalties is the government's former head of ethics, Helen MacNamara, who received a fixed-penalty notice for attending a Cabinet Office parting party in June 2020.
MacNamara - who is now the Premier League's director of policy - said she apologized for "the error of judgment I have shown".
According to BBC sources, some persons were fined for attending a leaving party in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip's burial on April 16, 2021.
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