The first batch of partygate fines have been issued by the Metropolitan Police
(Picture: PA Wire)Scotland Yard has handed out the first partygate scandal fines that rocked Downing Street.
The £50 penalties have been sent to individuals by email. The names of those involved have not been disclosed.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Tuesday that they have referred an initial tranche of 20 partygate cases for fixed penalties.
Police have refused to reveal who was being fined or give details of the breaches of coronavirus laws involved.
However the fines are thought to relate to a leaving do on June 18 2020, held in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary.
The event had not previously been disclosed but The Telegraph said the official in question is former home affairs policy adviser Hannah Young, who left Downing Street to take up the role of deputy consul general in New York.
The newspaper said it understood about 20 people attended, with alcohol consumed.
Downing Street has said it will not confirm the identity of anyone fined as a result of the Operation Hillman inquiry, with the exception of Boris Johnson or civil service head Simon Case.
The Metropolitan Police are investigating 12 events in Downing Street and Whitehall in which laws imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are alleged to have been breached in 2020 and 2021.
Speaking on Friday, Kit Malthouse, a minister in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice, said it is fair to say a fixed-penalty notice (FPN) signals that police feel an unlawful act has been committed.
Labour leader and former director of public prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer said the fines mean “we now know there was widespread criminality”.
The Prime Minister has so far dodged the question over whether receipt of a fine would equate to law breaking, with No 10 refusing to be drawn into the discussion until the inquiry has finished.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Malthouse said: “A fixed-penalty notice means police have a reasonable belief that you’ve broken the law – you still have a right to challenge it if you want.
“Having said that, the police practice is not routinely to release the names of those who receive fixed penalties, and I don’t see why that rule should be waived for those people who may or may not be in receipt of it in Downing Street.”
Mr Malthouse said he has not personally received a fine in relation to the Scotland Yard probe, and he would declare it if he did.
It is not believed the Prime Minister is among the recipients of the first round of fines.
