The investigation should be completed as swiftly as possible and the investigator will proceed on that basis.
The investigation will be undertaken by Adam Tolley KC with support from officials in the Cabinet Office. Those officials will work under the direction of the investigator and in line with the Civil Service Code.
The independent investigator will report to the Prime Minister on his investigation.
As set out in the Ministerial Code, the Prime Minister is the ultimate judge of the standards of behaviour expected of a Minister and the appropriate consequences of a breach of those standards.
The report of the investigation will be made public.
These Terms of Reference may be updated at the discretion of the Prime Minister, in consultation with the investigator.
6. As appears from the Terms of Reference, the first formal complaint had been made on 15 November 2022. It included (amongst other things) allegations about the conduct of the DPM at the Ministry of Justice (the "MoJ"), in his capacity as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State. For reasons which I explain below, I will refer to this complaint as the "MoJ Group Complaint".
7. The second formal complaint was also made on 15 November 2022. It concerned allegations about the conduct of the DPM at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (the "FCDO"), in his capacity as Secretary of State. I will refer to this complaint as the "FCDO Complaint".
8. On 16 November 2022 the DPM wrote a public letter to the Prime Minister in which he requested that the Prime Minister commission an independent investigation into what he referred to as the "claims" (viz the MoJ Group Complaint and the FCDO Complaint) as soon as possible. He stated that he would cooperate fully and respect whatever outcome the Prime Minister decided. He went on to state that he had "never tolerated bullying, and always sought to reinforce and empower the teams of civil servants working in my respective departments".
9. The Prime Minister replied on 16 November 2022 to confirm that he agreed that the two formal complaints (referring to the MoJ Group Complaint and the FCDO Complaint) should be investigated independently and fully.
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