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- continued to attend their offices for the purposes of work, as permitted by an exemption under the regulations.
- In particular, No 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office were at the centre of the Government's response to the pandemic. Tight knit groups of officials and advisers worked long hours under difficult conditions in buildings that could not be easily adapted as Covid secure workplaces. No 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office in 70 Whitehall are closely interconnected, with staff moving regularly between the two buildings as part of their daily work. The Prime Minister s flat and the Downing Street garden are in close proximity to the offices and serve a dual office and private purpose.
- Those challenges, however, also applied to key and frontline workers across the country who were working under equally, if not more, demanding conditions, often at risk to their own health. It is important to remember the stringency of the public health regulations in force in England over the relevant periods and that criminal sanctions were applied to many found to be in breach of them. The hardship under which citizens across the country worked, lived and sadly even died while observing the Government's regulations and guidance rigorously are known only too well.
- Every citizen has been impacted by the pandemic. Everyone has made personal sacrifices, some the most profound, having been unable to be with loved ones in their last moments or care for vulnerable family and friends.
Factual findings of the events
- For each event, I have summarised the particularly relevant passages of the applicable regulations and Government guidance. As explained in my update report, it is not my role to make a judgment on whether or not the criminal law has been broken; my focus has been on establishing the nature and purpose of the events and whether those events were appropriate in light of the Government's own guidance. Where I have set out the terms of the regulations, this is because they also formed part of the guidance. Other aspects of the guidance, particularly in relation to social distancing, were in addition to the terms of the regulations.
- The numerical references attributed to roles are distinct for each event.
- On the evidence collected, I have made the following findings:
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