The Queen has cancelled all garden parties in 2021 - the second year in a row she has had to do so.
The garden parties are one of the highlights of the royal summer season, with thousands of people invited.
They have been cancelled this year just a day after the Prime Minister announced further lockdown restrictions.
The social events are normally staged at Buckingham Palace in London and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
The decision comes after England entered its third national lockdown and mainland Scotland saw the introduction of similar restrictions.
A palace spokesman said: “The decision has been taken that garden parties will not take place in 2021.”
Garden parties were cancelled during 2020 following the first UK lockdown.
It is understood that deadlines to commit to staging the summer events were approaching but that it had not currently been possible to plan how they would be feasible – taking into account Covid-19 precautions.
Contractors involved in putting on the large gatherings, which see tens of thousands of people invited, had been informed.
