Privileges Committee progress inquiry as they call for documents from Mr Johnson and No 10

15 July 2022

The Committee of Privileges progressed its inquiry into the conduct of Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP as the Chair wrote to Mr Johnson and the Cabinet Secretary, Simon Case, requesting documents relating to the Committee’s inquiry.

The letters come as the Committee continues its investigation into the matter referred to it by the House on 21 April 2022. The documents requested are as follows:

PM diaries for the following days:
- 15 May 2020
- 20 May 2020
- 19 June 2020
- 13 November 2020
- 27 November 2020
- 15 December 2020
- 17 December 2020
- 14 January 2021
Event email invites
- All email/electronic (including WhatsApp) invites for all events included in the attached timeline.
No. 10 Entry Logs for the following days:
- 19 June 2020
- 13 November 2020
Briefings
- All Prime Minister briefing packs for all HoC appearances between 1 December 2021 and 25 May 2022, including Urgent Questions, Statements, and Prime Minister’s Questions, where briefing related to the matter referred to the Privileges Committee; including details of the clearance process and who cleared the briefing packs in each instance.
Electronic diary schedulers for PMQs briefing sessions
- Evidence of who attended the briefing sessions ahead of PMQs appearances.
Internal No. 10
- Any notes or evidence of any inquiries that were made by the Prime Minister’s office/Mr Johnson, particularly on 30 November 2021, following the publication of articles by the Daily Mirror on 30 November and 1 December 2020, (online and print), entitled “Boris Johnson 'broke Covid lockdown rules' with Downing Street parties at Xmas” and “Boris party broke covid rules”.
Resignation emails
- Any resignation emails, or correspondence relating to the resignation (including WhatsApp messages), of No.10 staff.
Advice and assurances
- All advice (including legal advice) and assurances received by Mr Johnson, or commissioned by the Prime Minister’s office, relating to the events included in the attached timeline.
No.10 photographer
- All photos for days where Mr Johnson attended any event included in the timeline, including those by the PM’s official photographer Andrew Parsons.
Covid status of No. 10 staff
- Information on the number of No 10 staff off work with Covid on the dates of each of the events on the timeline.
Civil servants disciplined
- Number of civil servants disciplined in relation to any event included in the timeline, broken down by grade.
Documents deleted
- Any documents in any of the above categories known to have existed which was subsequently deleted.

This provisional list of documents requested may be expanded on in the course of the investigation if required.

As well as calling for these documents, the Committee has also written to the Cabinet Secretary requesting that he draw the attention of staff in Number 10 and the Cabinet Office, and former staff who worked there since the start of the pandemic, to the Committee’s call for evidence, and announcing the Committee’s intention to make a site visit.

The Committee will be focusing on and finalising its procedures and processes in the coming weeks, with oral evidence sessions expected to begin after the return of the House in September.

The Committee continues to accept evidence via the website. The full correspondence to Simon Case, Boris Johnson and the full list of requested documents can be found on the Committee website here.