Events from

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Incumbent

Events

January

*6 January –

Reynhard Sinaga Reynhard "Rey" Tambos Maruli Tua Sinaga (born 19 February 1983) is an Indonesian serial rapist who was convicted of 159 sex offences, including 136 rapes of young men, committed in Manchester, England, between 2015 and 2017, where he was livi ...

, described as "the most prolific rapist in British legal history", is sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 30 years, after being found guilty of raping or sexually assaulting 48 men in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. Police believe he may have been responsible for assaulting a total of nearly 200 victims. *9 January – Five members of prison staff are injured when they are attacked by two inmates at

Whitemoor Prison HM Prison Whitemoor is a Category A men's prison near March, Cambridgeshire, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History Whitemoor Prison was built on the site of an old railway marshalling yard and was opened in 1991 by Norma M ...

in Cambridgeshire; the Metropolitan Police subsequently announces that the incident is being treated as a terrorist incident. *10 January – Gemma Watts, a 21-year-old woman from Enfield, north London who disguised herself as a 16-year-old boy to sexually assault teenage girls she had groomed online, is sentenced to eight years imprisonment after pleading guilty at

Winchester Crown Court The Winchester Law Courts is a judicial facility just off the High Street in Winchester, Hampshire, England. As well as accommodating the Crown Court, which deals with criminal cases, the complex also accommodates the County Court and the Winch ...

to charges involving four girls. Police believe she may be responsible for assaulting as many as 50 victims. *23 January – An earthquake of 3.0 magnitude is recorded by the

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance Earth science, geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. ...

Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees Val ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, just before 6 am.

February

*2 February – A man is shot dead by police in South London after a stabbing incident on Streatham High Road; police treat the incident as

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

-related. *10 February – In a "historic" decision, councillors reject a proposed expansion of

Bristol Airport Bristol Airport , at Lulsgate Bottom, on the northern slopes of the Mendip Hills, in North Somerset, is an international airport serving the city of Bristol, England, and the surrounding area. It is southwest of Bristol city centre. Built ...

, by 18 votes to seven, on the grounds that it would exacerbate

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, damage the health of local people, and harm flora and fauna. *24 February –

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

bans children under the age of twelve from heading footballs during training sessions. *25 February – A landmark study shows that life expectancy in England has stalled for the first time in more than 100 years and that health inequalities are growing wider than a decade ago. The study said that this can largely be attributed to the UK government's

austerity In economic policy, austerity is a set of Political economy, political-economic policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through Government spending, spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. There are three prim ...

policies. *27 February –

Count Binface Count Binface is a satirical novelty candidate created by the British comedian Jonathan David Harvey in 2018. He stood as a candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the 2019 United Kingdom general election against the then prime minister, Bori ...

announces he will run for

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

March

*13 March – COVID-19 in the England: Elections including the English local elections,

London mayoral election The London mayoral election for the office of mayor of London takes place every four years. The first election was held in May 2000, and six subsequent elections have taken place. The latest mayoral election took place in 2024. Electoral system ...

and police and crime commissioner elections, scheduled for May 2020, are postponed for a year because of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

May

*17 May -

Murder of Aya Hachem Aya Hachem was murdered in Blackburn, Lancashire, England on 17 May 2020. Aya Hachem was a University of Salford law student from Lebanon who moved to the UK in 2011. At 15:00 BST on 17 May 2020, Hachem was mistakenly shot dead by hitman Zami ...

*20 May - An

opt-out The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This option is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as e-mail marketing or direct mail. A list of th ...

organ donation Organ donation is the process when a person authorizes an organ (anatomy), organ of their own to be removed and organ transplantation, transplanted to another person, #Legislation and global perspectives, legally, either by consent while the d ...

law comes into force in England which hopefully would lead to an additional 700 transplants by 2023.

June

*16 June -

Murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes Arthur Labinjo-Hughes (4 January 2014 – 17 June 2020) was a six-year-old child living in the West Midlands, England who was abused and subsequently killed by his parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Arthur was mistreated over the course of s ...

*20 June -

2020 Reading stabbings On the evening of 20 June 2020, a man with a knife attacked people who were socialising in Forbury Gardens in Reading, Berkshire. Three men died from their wounds, and three other people were seriously injured. Khairi Saadallah, a 25-year-old ...

*21 June -

2020 Moss Side shooting At about 12:30 am on 21 June 2020, two young men were shot dead at a street party in Moss Side, an inner-city area of Manchester in North West England. Background The shooting took place at an afterparty, illegal under COVID-19 lockdown rules ...

August

*18 August - Health Secretary

Matt Hancock Matthew John David Hancock (born 2 October 1978) is a British politician who served as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General from 2015 to 2016, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January to July 20 ...

announces that

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

is to be "scrapped" and replaced by a new body run by

Dido Harding Diana Mary "Dido" Harding, Baroness Harding of Winscombe (born November 1967) is a British businesswoman and life peer who served as chair of NHS Improvement from 2017 to 2021, and as interim chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UK ...

, called the National Institute for Health Protection and it will aim to combine PHE and the

NHS Test and Trace NHS Test and Trace was a government-funded service in England, established in 2020 to track and help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The programme is part of the UK Health Security Agency; the service and the agency are headed by Jenny Harr ...

operation, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. *25 August -

Ofqual The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is a non-ministerial government department that regulates qualifications, exams and tests in England. Colloquially and publicly, Ofqual is often referred to as the exam "watchdog ...

chief,

Sally Collier Sally Collier is a British civil servant and former head of the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual). She also involved in negotiating changes to European Union rules governing public procurement. Career She has serv ...

, resigns after thousands of students' marks were downgraded for exams they were unable to sit. * 29 August – Men's and

women's A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...

FA Community Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is Football in England, English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA ...

September

* 9 September – COVID-19 in the England: The government announces a ban on

social gatherings Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives fro ...

of more than six people in England and will be enforced from the 14 September - with some exceptions such as schools, workplaces or COVID-secure weddings, funerals and organised team sports. *25 September – Sgt Matiu Ratana, a long serving police officer with the Metropolitan Police, is shot dead during an incident at a custody centre in Croydon, London.

October

* 1 October – Plastic

drinking straw A drinking straw is a List of eating utensils, utensil that uses suction to carry the contents of a beverage to one's mouth. A straw is used by placing one end in the mouth and the other in a beverage. By applying suction with the mouth, the air ...

s, cotton buds and drink stirrers are banned in England.

References

{{England year nav, state=collapsed *England 2020s in England Years of the 21st century in England 2020 in Europe 2020 by country