Around one in seven adults said they did not always maintain social distancing while meeting up with others over the last seven days, figures show.
Some 85 per cent of adults reported always or often socially distancing while meeting up with people outside their household, support or childcare bubble, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
However, some 14 per cent of respondents did not always or often socially distance, rising to 24 per cent of adults aged 16-29.
The most common reasons were because they were meeting friends (59 per cent) and family members (47 per cent), the ONS said.
It said there may be “valid, essential reasons” why people were unable to maintain social distancing and it does not necessarily mean they were breaking the coronavirus rules.
The ONS analysed responses from 3,791 adults in Britain polled between April 21 and 25 as part of its Opinions and Lifestyle Survey.
Overall, 10 per cent of adults said they had met up indoors with someone not from their household, support or childcare bubble in the last seven days.
More than half (57 per cent) had done so outside.
Two-thirds of adults aged 16-29 said they did not socially distance because they were with friends, compared to 38 per cent of adults aged 70 and over.
Older adults were more likely to not socially distance from family – 55 per cent of adults aged 70 and over who did not always or often socially distance gave this reason, compared to 38 per cent of 16-29-year-olds.
Boris Johnson is due to be told that social distancing measures for large-scale events can be ditched from June 21, after initial results from a pilot scheme discovered no spike in Covid cases among attendees.
According to the Telegraph, an interim report will advise Mr Johnson that mass events can occur safely and that they have shown "there are some effective ways to manage risk that could remove the need to have social distancing at events".
Measures due to be mentioned in the report include staggered entry, clear communication with attendees and sufficient ventilation at indoor venues.
