Downing Street parties: Sue Gray won't wait for police inquirySue Gray is expected to deliver her report on No 10 parties to the PM without waiting for the police inquiry to conclude, the BBC has been told.
The senior civil servant is expected to hand her report to the prime minister shortly but no exact timescale has been given.
It comes after days of confusion over when the report would be published.
The Met Police has denied its investigation is to blame for any delay.
The police had asked for minimal references to be made to the events they are looking at, in order to "avoid any prejudice to our investigation".
This means the report Ms Gray releases before the police probe is complete may need to contain some redactions, or be changed.
Downing Street is yet to receive the document, which it has promised to publish.
Material from the Cabinet Office, which the Met requested to "support its investigation into potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations at a number of events in Downing Street and Whitehall", was received by the force on Friday.
In a statement, the Met said it expected to approach individuals "identified as having potentially breached" regulations.
Commander Catherine Roper, who leads the Met's Central Specialist Crime Command, said "the offences under investigation, where proven, would normally result in the issuing of a fixed penalty notice".
She added that the Met's actions would be "proportionate to the nature of these offences".
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said he had been told Ms Gray was trying to redraft parts of her report to address any police concerns - but wanted to avoid blanking out whole swathes of text in case it looked like "a Whitehall whitewash".
Former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, told the BBC that asking for Ms Gray's report to make only minimal reference to the gatherings being investigated by police seemed "disproportionate" if the force was only considering fixed penalty notices.
Labour has called for the report to be published in full and the investigations to be wrapped up as soon as possible.
The SNP and Liberal Democrats are claiming the delay in publication is a "stitch-up" aimed at keeping Boris Johnson in power.
The report is seen as key to Mr Johnson's political future, with many Conservative MPs saying they will wait for its publication before deciding whether to take action against the prime minister.
Mr Johnson has been under pressure following a string of allegations about events held in Downing Street and other government premises during coronavirus restrictions.
It has already been confirmed that the events Ms Gray is looking into include a "bring-your-own-booze" drinks event in the No 10 garden in May 2020, which was attended by Mr Johnson, and a staff gathering to celebrate his birthday in June 2020.
On Tuesday, Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick announced that the force was investigating.
The SNP's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said: "If the UK government refuses to publish the full unredacted report it will prove, yet again, that Westminster is utterly corrupt and broken beyond repair.
"It won't save Boris Johnson's skin. It will only add to the calls for him to go."
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "Anything short of the full report would be a Whitehall whitewash not worth the paper it is written on."
And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: "What I want to see is Sue Gray's report in full and the investigation finished as quickly as possible."
Sir Roger Gale, who is among the Tory MPs to have publicly called for the PM to resign, said the situation was a "farce" which could delay a possible challenge to the "lame duck" prime minister.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World At One, he added that unless there is a "legal barrier", the senior official should publish her report "now and in full".
Asked by the BBC's Nick Robinson if the police's statement had been helpful to Mr Johnson, senior minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said: "It would be a very eccentric conspiracy theorist who thought that the prime minister being investigated by the police is beneficial for the prime minister - that is parallel universe stuff."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60177028