Picture copyright Getty Pictures Dur
Picture copyright
Getty Pictures
Durham police issued fines to 2 individuals – from totally different households – who travelled collectively from London to County Durham throughout lockdown.
The power is at the moment contemplating whether or not to take motion towards the prime minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings over an analogous journey.
Mr Cummings made the 246 mile journey from London to Durham metropolis along with his spouse and four-year-old son.
The 2 people fined by the power travelled to close by Peterlee.
Mr Cummings has defended his resolution to make the journey to Durham, insisting it was authorized and inside the pointers.
“The principles made clear that in case you are coping with babies that may be distinctive circumstances,” he mentioned at a press convention on Monday.
“And I feel that the scenario that I used to be in was distinctive circumstances, and the best way that I handled it was the least threat to everyone involved if my spouse and I had each been unable to take care of our four-year-old.”
He has been backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has mentioned it’s time to “transfer on” from the row and give attention to the general public’s “wants, fairly than on a political ding-dong about what one adviser might or might not have executed”.
The lockdown fines had been uncovered in Freedom of Data requests made to police forces across the nation earlier than information of Mr Cummings’ journey emerged.
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The BBC is in search of additional particulars from Durham Constabulary in regards to the two people who had been fined for travelling from London to Peterlee, about 13 miles west of Durham, on eight April, every week after Mr Cummings made his journey.
Durham Constabulary is investigating whether or not Mr Cummings broke lockdown guidelines along with his journey from London to Durham and a subsequent journey to Barnard Fortress, about 30 miles from Durham.
Officers have reportedly spoken to the person who instructed the Guardian and Each day Mirror he had seen Mr Cummings in Barnard Fortress, on Easter Sunday, as a part of their investigation.
A authorities spokesperson mentioned “We’re assured the police will use their frequent sense, discretion and expertise.”
‘Visiting relative’
Police powers to implement safety got here in to power in England on 26 March.
By 11 Might, 13,445 Fastened Penalty Notices had been handed out in England and 799 in Wales.
The BBC’s Freedom of Data requests coated the primary two and a half weeks of the rules, together with the Easter Weekend.
On this interval, police forces in England issued 3,203 FPNs – an preliminary advantageous of £60, halved in the event you paid inside two weeks.
In a single case, a person in Leicestershire was issued with an FPN after being stopped on the motorway.
He instructed officers he was “travelling dwelling to London after visiting a sick relative” in Nottinghamshire.
One other FPN was given to a person who was “taking his bike for a journey” 10 miles from his dwelling handle.
There isn’t a attraction course of for FPNs issued below the coronavirus rules.
Civil liberties campaigners say there isn’t a consistency in how the principles have been utilized and are calling for a evaluate of the “unjust” fines.
‘Inconsistently utilized’
Rosalind Comyn, coverage and campaigns officer on the rights group Liberty, mentioned: “Such broad police powers and obscure authorities steering are a recipe for discrimination and injustice, which is why Liberty together with many different teams have been persistently calling for a evaluate.
“It is now clear how inconsistently the powers have been utilized – significantly when, as latest occasions present, they do not apply to the very individuals who wrote them.
“The federal government urgently must pare again the powers, create a proper to attraction and evaluate each advantageous issued.”
Kirsty Brimelow QC, a barrister at Doughty Road Chambers, mentioned: “In mild of Mr Cummings’ actions being upheld by the federal government as authorized and inside each legislation and steering, there must be an official evaluate of all these fines.
“If Mr Cummings’ actions amounted to a ‘cheap excuse’, together with his check drive or day journey, how does this have an effect on these convicted who may need put ahead comparable causes?”
No evaluate
Ms Brimelow inspired those that have been issued with fines to hunt additional steering.
On Tuesday, Well being Secretary Matt Hancock was requested by a member of the general public on the day by day coronavirus press briefing whether or not the federal government would evaluate fines for individuals travelling for “childcare functions”.
Mr Hancock mentioned it was “completely cheap to remove that query” and he would take a look at it along with his Treasury colleagues.
However authorities sources later clarified that there can be no evaluate of fines issued below the coronavirus rules.
Talking to BBC Breakfast, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick mentioned police forces had been asking their officers to “have interaction within the first occasion, to elucidate and to resort to fines solely when completely crucial”.