The lockdown-breaching parties by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff represent a “serious failure” to observe the standards expected of government.
Senior civil servant Sue Gray concluded that “there were failures of leadership and judgment” in the government and “some of the events should not have been allowed to take place.
The findings are part of what Gray’s office calls an “update” on her investigation, rather than a full report.
Major parts of her findings have been withheld at the request of the police, who have launched a criminal investigation into the most serious alleged breaches of coronavirus rules.
However it has been acknowledged that the police are investigating the allegations of a party in the Downing street private flat that was held by Carrie Johnson to celebrate the end of Dominic Cummings’ employment.
In the report Sue Gray acknowledges she was “extremely limited in what I can say about those events and it is not possible at present to provide a meaningful report setting out and analysing the extensive factual information I have been able to gather.”
She said that some staff wanted to raise concerns about behaviours they witnessed at work but at times felt unable to do so.
She found that the the structures that support the smooth operation of Downing Street have not evolved sufficiently… “the leadership structures are fragmented and complicated and this has sometimes led to the blurring of lines of accountability.”
She concluded that “there is significant learning to be drawn from these events which must be addressed immediately across government” and that “this does not need to wait for the police investigations to be concluded.”
You can read the full report HERE
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