Cummings may have been guilty of 'minor' breach
Dominic Cummings may have been guilty of a “minor” breach of the coronavirus lockdown rules but will face no further action, Durham Police announced.
The Prime Minister’ s specialadviser, along with his wife and son, drove to Durham to self-isolate in a property owned by his father on Friday, March 27. Durham Constabulary said on Thursday it did not consider that doing so breached the regulations set out by the Government in March, imposing lockdown.
Mr Cummings and his family then drove 26 miles to Barnard Castle from Durham in April. He has said the trip was to test his fitness to drive back to London, particularly his eye sight. There have been calls for his dismissal.
Regarding the trip to Barnard Castle, Durham Constabulary “concluded that there might have been a minor breach of the regulations that would have warranted police intervention” but added“there was no apparent breach of social distancing”.
Had Mr Cummings been stopped by officers, he would most likely have been told to go back to the Durham house, and no further action taken if he had done so.
The statement said: “Durham Constabulary view this as minor because there was no apparent breach of social distancing." In line with Durham Constabulary's general approach throughout the pandemic, there is no intention to take retrospective action in respect of the Barnard Castle incident since this would amount to treating Mr Cummings differently. Durham Constabulary has not taken retrospective action against any other person .”
The force added that its officers found no evidence to support reports Mr Cummings was in Durham on April 19.