Call for Evidence

The Committee of Privileges has issued a call for evidence relating to the matter referred to it by the House in the Resolution of 21 April 2022:

Resolved, That this House—

(1) notes that, given the issue of fixed penalty notices by the police in relation to events in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, assertions the Rt hon Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip has made on the floor of the House about the legality of activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations, including but not limited to the following answers given at Prime Minister’s Questions: 1 December 2021, that “all guidance was followed in No. 10”, Official Report vol. 704, col. 909; 8 December 2021 that “I have been repeatedly assured since these allegations emerged that there was no party and that no Covid rules were broken”, Official Report vol. 705, col. 372; 8 December 2021 that “I am sickened myself and furious about that, but I repeat what I have said to him: I have been repeatedly assured that the rules were not broken”, Official Report vol. 705, col. 372 and 8 December 2021 that “the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”, Official Report vol. 705, col. 379, appear to amount to misleading the House; and

(2) orders that this matter be referred to the Committee of Privileges to consider whether the Rt hon Member’s conduct amounted to a contempt of the House, but that the Committee shall not begin substantive consideration of the matter until the inquiries currently being conducted by the Metropolitan Police have been concluded.

Erskine May says “any act or omission which obstructs or impedes either House of Parliament in the performance of its functions…or which has a tendency, directly or indirectly, to produce such results, may be treated as a contempt..” (para 15.2)

The assertions referred to are specified as those relating to “the legality of activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office under Covid regulations, including but not limited to” four specific assertions made by Mr Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Committee is seeking witness information and evidence which would enable it to determine whether or not the Rt Hon Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip misled the House, such as evidence of:

• Mr Johnson’s knowledge of the activities in 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office referred to above from the occurrence of those events until now; and/or
• any briefing given to, or inquiries made by, Mr Johnson relating to those events.

The Committee is willing to consider taking oral or written evidence from people who wish to remain anonymous, subject to the proviso that the Chair of the Committee must be informed of the person’s identity and may, in conjunction with the committee staff, carry out checks to verify that identity and the relevance and probity of the evidence.

If you wish to give evidence you may either submit through the website or contact Mike Winter, the Chair’s Liaison Officer, winterm@parliament.uk

Submissions

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission and has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. The Committee will not accept submissions which are about general matters: it is interested in accounts from those with knowledge of events related to the inquiry.

Anonymity and Confidentiality

If your submission is accepted by the Committee, and is not confidential, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public.

If your evidence raises any safeguarding concerns about you, or other people, then the Committee has a duty to raise these with the appropriate safeguarding authority.

We can’t publish submissions that mention ongoing legal cases – contact us if you are not sure what this means for you.

Deadline for submissions

The Committee calls for evidence to be submitted by 29 July 2022.