Scotland Yard on Tuesday confirmed that it will fine 20 people who organised or attended parties at Downing Street and within UK government offices in Whitehall in London in breach of COVID lockdown rules at the time.
The Metropolitan Police had launched Operation Hillman following an internal inquiry into what became widely known as the "partygate" scandal, which led British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to issue an apology in Parliament.
While the individuals issued with the fines have not been named by the police, the UK Prime Minister's spokesperson said Johnson was not one of those who had received the so-called "fixed penalty notice" at this stage of the ongoing police investigation.
"We will today initially begin to refer 20 fixed penalty notices to be issued for breaches of COVID-19 regulations," the Met Police said in a statement on Tuesday.
The force said that under the College of Policing guidelines, the "identities of people dealt with by cautions, speeding fines and other fixed penalties - out-of-court disposals - should not be released or confirmed"."We will not confirm the number of referrals from each individual event subject to our investigation as providing a breakdown at this point may lead to identification of the individuals," the Met Police said, adding that "significant amount of investigative material" still remains to be assessed and further fines are likely to be fixed.