the office during the pandemic, in order to carry out their roles effectively, with some rota working for duty staff.
On 27 November 2020, a message was sent at 15.31 by a No 10 official on a WhatsApp Group consisting of No 10 media special advisers and members of the No 10 Press Office and Private Office. The message read ’Hey team - do you want to participate in press office secret Santa?’, followed by a message saying ’Spending limit £10' and a further message which read ’We will do gift exchange and cheese and (lots of) wine on 18th Dec.’ A number of staff replied positively.
On 3 December 2020, an email invitation was sent from the Press Office Mailbox to members of the No 10 Press Office, which included officials and special advisers, inviting them to a ’Wine & Cheese Evening’, to be held from 17.00-21.00 on Friday 18 December 2020. On 7 December 2020, messages were sent via a second WhatsApp group organising who would provide which type of cheese for the event.
On 12 December 2020, a number of messages were sent on a third WhatsApp group, discussing the purchase of a fridge for the office (through individual contributions). One member of the group said ’£5 or so from everyone who wants to contribute would be fab thanks team’. Another member of the group replied ’Done, Looking forward to a chilled WTF [Wine Time Friday] next week’, while another commented ’...depending on how full it gets we can put Friday’s cheese in there.’
On 18 December 2020, a message was sent to a fourth WhatsApp group (whose membership consisted of Press Office officials, including senior civil servants), at 12.09 as follows:
"Our current plan is:
1630 people put out their cheese and Christmas treats
1700 [No 10 Official] kicks off Secret Santa (if you're alright with that [a No 10 official]? We can help give out the presents.
[No 10 Official] then gives out the quiz and gives people some time to do it before going through the answers
[No 10 Official] then does the weather game - we need to divide the office into two teams socially distanced along the long bank of desks for this we think
Then James [Slack] and Jack [Doyle] do a bit of a jokey highlights and low-lights of the year speech"
