A police officer in Downing Street, London (Jonathan Brady/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)The focus of the Partygate scandal has now shifted to the Metropolitan Police as officers investigate 12 alleged gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall across a year of the pandemic.
A ‘bring your own booze’ garden party on May 20, 2020, an alleged gathering in the Prime Minister’s private flat after the departure of his aide Dominic Cummings on November 13, 2020, and leaving parties in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021 are among the events under investigation.
Scotland Yard has promised to probe the partygate claims “without fear or favour”, subjecting government workers, civil servants, and politicians to the same process as members of the public who have been caught breaking the pandemic restrictions.
What happens next?
The Met’s Special Inquiry Team has been handed more than 300 images and over 500 pages of information which have emerged during civil servant Sue Gray’s inquiry into the scandal.
Officers will pore over the material to identify those suspected of breaking the Health Protection regulations – the rules used to enforce the pandemic restrictions.
Suspects will then be written to by the police, and are likely to be asked if they have a “reasonable excuse” for attending an event which is being probed.
This process, which could take weeks to be completed, is a mirror of what has happened each time police broke up lockdown-busting parties in the last two years.
Once the police have received a reply, they will assess whether to push forward with a Fixed Penalty Notice for a breach of the rules.
Will the Downing Street rule-breakers be named?
Police forces across the country have issued tens of thousands of Fixed Penalty Notices to people caught breaking lockdown, holding illicit parties, and flouting the restrictions on businesses.
But the vast majority of the rule-breakers have never been publicly identified, as they have paid their penalty within the allocated timeframe. Those fined are given four weeks to settle the bill or risk the prospect of criminal prosecution.
The Met has confirmed this will be the same for Partygate offenders, sticking to its promise to “follow our normal processes”, and anyone given a Fixed Penalty Notice will not be identified by the force. It will be left to Downing Street and Sue Gray to decide whether offenders are named.
How are Covid-19 prosecutions supported?
It can take just one statement from a police officer to prop up a Covid-19 prosecution, if that PC saw a party taking place and can provide enough information on the suspect.
Police officers must set out the details of what took place, state why it is in breach of the regulation that was in force at the time, and identify the person said to have broken the rules.
In Partygate cases, it is likely to be more complex with a myriad of pieces of evidence coming forward from the Sue Gray inquiry. There will be no statements available from police officers breaking up gatherings, as that did not happen.
It is expected, therefore, that police officers will submit statements, drawing together the pieces of evidence they believe support the prosecution. The evidence supplied by Sue Gray could also be deployed.
The police can also put forward pictures as evidence to support their case, as well as videos if any exist.
Are £10,000 fines on the cards?
Plenty of £10,000 fines have been handed out to illegal party organisers since their introduction in autumn 2020, as they were used to crackdown on the most flagrant of breaches.
Many of the allegations in the Partygate scandal relate to Christmas 2020, when the five-figure penalties were already in force.
However, we have not seen Sue Gray’s evidence dossier and it is difficult to predict which regulations may have been broken and what level of fines might be contemplated.
In many cases that have come before Westminster magistrates court, partygoers have been punished for attending, rather than organising, a gathering – even when it occurred in their own home. They have then faced fines in the hundreds rather than thousands or pounds.
In general, those caught attending illegal gatherings have been issued with £200 fines. If someone chooses to go through the court process, costs and fees can be added and the financial penalties can increase dramatically.
What happens to people contesting a fine?
There is no appeals process in the Covid-19 Fixed Penalty Notice scheme, despite the insistence of MPs that one should be included.
So those accused over Partygate who believe they are innocent can either make representations to the police – possibly through a lawyer – or take their chances in the court process.
If a fine is unpaid and the Met decides to prosecute, a case will be processed through Westminster magistrates court’s Single Justice Procedure.
The defendant is sent a Single Justice Procedure form, outlining the charge against them, a summary of the alleged offence, and the plea options that they face.
They are asked to reply in writing, either pleading guilty and offering mitigation or denying the charge and sending their case to a trial.
On a guilty plea, the case could be dealt with in a behind-closed-doors hearing in which a single magistrate will assess the evidence and impose a financial penalty. However the offender can request an open court sentencing hearing.
If the defendant chooses to plead not guilty, a trial in open court will be scheduled.
If any of the Partygate cases go to court, then the defendant should be publicly identified. However, the Single Justice Procedure has been dogged by accusations of secret hearings and a process which is notoriously opaque.
Can the fines simply be ignored?
Monster fines from the courts come with threats of bailiffs, more financial penalties, arrest, and even the possibility of prison for those that fail to pay up.
Once a fine has been imposed, defendants can be lawfully pursued until they settle the bill.
However, it is a fact that most of the Covid-19 fines that have been levied in the pandemic so far have gone unpaid.
The vast majority of prosecutions have been brought against people who have failed to pay a fine, and many of those people go on to ignore the court process.
It remains to be seen whether the threats of bailiffs and prison will turn into a reality.
Will there be a quick resolution to Partygate?
It seems highly unlikely that the Partygate scandal, the police investigation, and the punishing of offenders will be over anytime soon.
After the Met has had time to investigate, Fixed Penalty Notices will be issued and may be paid within the four-week deadline.
But if any cases go to court, it could be more than a year before the matter is finally dealt with.
Westminster magistrates court is currently dealing with lockdown breakers from January 2021, in prosecutions that began several months ago.
Any trial of a Partygate matter would be unlikely to take place before autumn 2022, and lengthier delays are possible due to the number of cases in the magistrates court backlog.
All this means the full Sue Gray report could remain locked in a drawer for many months more, if the decision is taken to wait until police action has concluded before it can be published.
