THE Metropolitan Police said officers have now made more than 50 referrals for fixed penalty notices to the ACRO Criminal Records Office over breaches of Covid-19 regulations in Whitehall and Downing Street.
This is up from the 20 referrals for fixed-penalty notices (FPN) the force said had been made at the end of March.
Scotland Yard said it was “making every effort to progress this investigation at speed”, with the possibility of more fines to come.
The identities of people issued with FPNs have not been disclosed publicly by the Met, nor the event a fine relates to.
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However, Downing Street has said it will confirm if either Boris Johnson or Cabinet Secretary Simon Case are handed a fine.
No 10 has been approached on whether the Prime Minister or Case have been notified about an incoming fine as part of the latest batch of referrals.
SNP Westminster chief Ian Blackford said the development marks "an extraordinary state of events".
The MP added: "We cannot just brush this under the carpet @BorisJohnson presided over this institutionalised law breaking."
And the SNP’s deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald MP said the fines proved Johnson's claim that no parties had been held, or rules broken, were "a lie".
"The sheer scale of rule-breaking at the heart of Downing Street is staggering," she said. "People will be looking on in horror as those that set the rules blatantly broke them - making it clear that it's one rule for the Tories and another for everyone else.
“The public will rightly want answers and accountability, and it is vital that there is transparency in this ongoing investigation and that must involve full disclosure of precisely who, among ministers and senior civil servants, is being fined for breaking the law.
“Boris Johnson should have resigned a long time ago over the rule-breaking parties, but his ego and lack of dignity has led him to desperately cling on.
“The reality is that the longer he stays in office the more lasting the damage will be.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey added that the additional fines “expose the shocking scale of the criminality in Boris Johnson’s No 10”.
The former cabinet minister added: “The police have now completely shredded Johnson’s claims that no laws were broken.
“He cannot be trusted and cannot continue as Prime Minister.
“No other leader in any other organisation would be allowed to continue after law-breaking on this scale.
“If Boris Johnson won’t resign, Conservative MPs must show him the door.”
ACRO Criminal Records Office, the body responsible for issuing the penalties, will now deal with the latest tranche confirmed by police on Tuesday.
A former senior official last week became the first person to confirm they had received an FPN as a result of the partygate investigation.
Former deputy cabinet secretary and Whitehall ethics chief Helen MacNamara said she was “sorry for the error of judgment I have shown”.
MacNamara, who now works for the Premier League, was reported to have received the fine in connection with a leaving do held in the Cabinet Office on June 18 2020.
Separately, The Guardian has reported that other people had been fined for a gathering held on the eve of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral last year.
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There were also reports that some of the fines issued last month related to coronavirus law-breaking by those who attended a leaving party for a senior official who helped shape the Government’s response to the pandemic.
The Daily Telegraph reported that some of those at the farewell event for Kate Josephs, who was director-general of the Cabinet Office’s Covid-19 taskforce, have been handed fixed-penalty notices.
The drinks event was held in the Cabinet Office on December 17 2020 at a time when London was under Tier 3 restrictions, banning indoor socialising.
Josephs, who is on discretionary leave from her role as chief executive of Sheffield City Council, has not commented on the report but in January apologised after news of the gathering emerged.
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