We're still combing through the 48 pages of the Raab report, which reveals the former deputy prime minister was interviewed four times for the investigation.

The interviews took place over two-and-a-half days, says the report's author, lawyer Adam Tolley KC.

In total, 44 pieces of written evidence were considered and 66 interviews conducted.

Tolley also notes that Raab engaged "seriously and conscientiously with the investigation process".

In the latter part of Rishi Sunak's letter, he runs through some of Raab's government roles and the work he's overseen, including stepping in for Boris Johnson when the former PM was in hospital with Covid in 2020.

The prime minister finishes by saying he'll "always be grateful" for Raab's "steadfast personal support during last year's Conservative Party leadership contest".

Read Raab's resignation letter - and Sunak's reply - in full here.

While we continue to comb through the report's findings, it's worth coming back in more detail to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's letter to Dominic Raab, his friend and political ally, in which he accepts his resignation "with great sadness".

Appearing to agree with some of Raab's criticisms of the inquiry, Sunak says it's "clear there have been shortcomings in the historic process".

The PM says these issues have "negatively affected everyone involved", and "we should learn from this how to better handle such matters in future".

"But your resignation should not make us forget your record of delivery in both this government and previous administrations," Sunak writes, adding Raab's "achievements" should make him "extremely proud".

He goes on to thank Raab for serving as his justice secretary and lord chancellor, saying that in those roles the outgoing deputy PM "put the rights of victims at the heart of our criminal justice system".

We're still going through the 48-page report - which is pretty dense and covers a lot of ground.

It looks at his behaviour in meetings with officials as justice secretary, and picks out an example where Raab complained about the absence of "basic information" from officials, about staff "whom he perceived to be resistant to his policies, and described some work as "utterly useless" and "woeful".

The report goes on to say that Raab did not intend to upset or humiliate, "nor did he target anyone for a specific type of treatment".

Raab's "interruptive style" is not in itself intimidating, the report says, but the combination of this with "unconstructive critical feedback is likely to have been experienced as intimidating, in the sense of being unreasonably difficult to deal with".

The report also looks at Dominic Raab's conduct as foreign secretary, a role he served in from 2019 to 2021.

It concludes that while implementing a certain decision in the role "he acted in a way which was intimidating, in the sense of unreasonably and persistently aggressive conduct in the context of a work meeting.

"His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates. He introduced an unwarranted punitive element."

The report into Dominic Raab's behaviour looks at complaints made during his time at the Ministry of Justice.

It finds that on a number of occasions, while meeting with policy officials, Raab "acted in a manner which was intimidating, in the sense of going further than was necessary or appropriate in delivering critical feedback, and also insulting, in the sense of making unconstructive critical comments about the quality of work done (whether or not as a matter of substance any criticism was justified)."

In his resignation letter earlier, Raab said he believed the report had "flawed" findings and had set the threshold for bullying too low.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has accepted his deputy Dominic Raab's resignation "with great sadness", a letter by the PM says.

We've just got our hands on the report into bullying allegations that led to Dominic Raab's resignation.

We've also had an accompanying letter from Rishi Sunak sent to Raab.

We're now poring over the details and will bring you the key lines.

Since Dominic Raab’s resignation we’ve been getting reaction from civil servants - some of whom who worked alongside the former deputy prime minister.

One told the BBC’s Sima Kotecha: “I feel relief – just huge relief.”

Another, a former senior civil servant, says Raab’s resignation letter – which effectively said his behaviour was key to setting high standards in office – is consistent with how he led his department.

“It’s perhaps of note from his letter that he feels there are different, perhaps acceptable thresholds of bullying, which perhaps says it all it needs to say about this whole fiasco,” they say.

Raab has said he's sorry for any "unintended stress of offence that any officials felt" as a result of how he worked.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Clearly Dominic Raab is making the case that he feels the report's definition of bullying is setting the threshold very low and that in his view his behaviour in particular with senior officials was justified.

He is prompting a debate that is going to rage on about two things:

First, what is, in broad terms, appropriate behaviour in the workplace in 2023? And in political terms, what is appropriate behaviour between a senior secretary of state appointed by the PM and senior officials who have often been in the civil service for much longer and were appointed by a different human resources umbrella.

There's an obvious tension there.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent

We've been getting reaction from those who worked closely with Dominic Raab.

One person who advised him at a senior level in a government department says civil servants will be breathing a sigh of relief, saying there were lessons to be learned from how Raab had led staff.

"Whilst the letter contains an apology, it’s one of the best examples of a ‘non-apology’ from a minister in recent years," the person says.

"It’s relatively easy to set pace, standards and challenge, it’s much harder to lead effectively to deliver against these objectives."

They add:

Sam Francis
Political reporter

On top of the political fallout, Dominic Raab now faces a pay-cut of about £68,000 as he loses his ministerial salary., external

Despite resigning he will still get a £17,000 pay-off, as long as he is not reappointed to another ministerial office within the next three weeks of leaving office. Not out of the realms of possibility given that the BBC understands Rishi Sunak was not calling for Raab's resignation.

Raab is free to waive his entitlement to this payment.

Image source, POOL

Labour leader Keir Starmer has responded to Dominic Raab's resignation, which he says shows the "continual weakness" of Rishi Sunak.

Speaking to reporters at a hospital in North Yorkshire, he says Raab should never have been appointed in the first place and that the prime minister should have sacked him now instead of letting him resign.

Starmer says the next generation of NHS staff want to talk about their futures, but "here we are talking about weakness at the top of the Tory party".

He adds that "no matter how many times you change the person at the top", the Conservatives are a party that "just can't deliver" or govern.

On Raab's claims the inquiry was flawed, Starmer says he doesn't know why the former deputy PM "thinks anybody wants to hear about his whining about having to resign".

Moving his attack to the state of the country, he asks: "Why on earth isn't the government laser focused on the cost of living crisis and NHS?"

We're yet to get a statement from Rishi Sunak in the wake of Raab's resignation.

We're now getting some reaction from the opposition parties.

Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper says Dominic Raab has shown "he is not only unfit to serve as a minister but is totally unfit to represent his constituents in Parliament".

Cooper calls on Raab to resign as an MP "and trigger a by-election so the people of Esher and Walton can finally have the MP they deserve".

Meanwhile, Labour are accusing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of being too weak for letting Raab resign.

A Labour source told the BBC that Raab is the "second cabinet bully allowed to resign - Sunak failed to sack both him and Williamson."

They added: "We’ve had 13 years of Tory PMs trying to dodge the rules and defend their mates. Enough is enough."

Image source, PA Media

All this centres around allegations of bullying from several civil servants who had worked under Dominic Raab.

PM Rishi Sunak tasked senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC with investigating eight formal complaints, involving at least 24 people, about Raab's behaviour relating to three previous ministerial roles: justice secretary and foreign secretary under Boris Johnson, and Brexit secretary under Theresa May.

Raab has consistently denied bullying staff and in his resignation letter said "all but two claims levelled against" him had been dismissed.

We're yet to see the report and what exactly Tolley's findings are.

In another part of his resignation letter, Dominic Raab apologises and says he's "genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice".

"That is, however, what the public expect of ministers working on their behalf," he adds.

He also makes clear that the report concluded he had, "not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone".

These accusations have surfaced in various ways, including in a fiery Commons debate when deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner indirectly referred to Raab.

Nick Eardley
Chief political correspondent

Sources inside Downing Street are insisting that Rishi Sunak did not ask Dominic Raab to resign.

For those of you wanting to pore over every sentence of Dominic Raab's resignation later, here it is:

I am writing to resign from your government, following receipt of the report arising from the inquiry conducted by Adam Tolley KC. I called for the inquiry and undertook to resign, if it made any finding of bullying whatsoever. I believe it is important to keep my word.

It has been a privilege to serve you as Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work as a Minister in a range of roles and departments since 2015, and pay tribute to the many outstanding civil servants with whom I have worked.

Whilst I feel duty bound to accept the outcome of the inquiry, it dismissed all but two of the claims levelled against me. I also believe that its two adverse findings are flawed and set a dangerous precedent for the conduct of good government. First, Ministers must be able to exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical negotiations conducted on behalf of the British people, otherwise the democratic and constitutional principle of Ministerial responsibility will be lost. This was particularly true during my time as Foreign Secretary, in the context of the Brexit negotiations over Gibraltar, when a senior diplomat breached the mandate agreed by Cabinet

Second, Ministers must be able to give direct critical feedback on briefings and submissions to senior officials, in order to set the standards and drive the reform the public expect of us. Of course, this must be done within reasonable bounds. Mr Tolley concluded that I had not once, in four and a half years, sworn or shouted at anyone, let alone thrown anything or otherwise physically intimidated anyone, nor intentionally sought to belittle anyone. I am genuinely sorry for any unintended stress or offence that any officials felt, as a result of the pace, standards and challenge that I brought to the Ministry of Justice. That is, however, what the public expect of Ministers working on their behalf.

In setting the threshold for bullying so low, this inquiry has set a dangerous precedent. It will encourage spurious complaints against Ministers, and have a chilling effect on those driving change on behalf of your government - and ultimately the British people.

Read the rest of the letter here.

A lot of the commentary around this saga has been around whether Dominic Raab was simply a strict and demanding boss, or if his behaviour crossed the line into bullying.

And as we've been reporting, in his resignation letter, Raab says the adverse findings against him set a "dangerous precedent".

He says "ministers must be able to exercise direct oversight with respect to senior officials over critical negotiations" and says this is done, as MPs, "on behalf of the British public".

"Otherwise the democratic and constitutional principle of ministerial responsibility will be lost," Raab writes, adding this was "particularly true" during his time as foreign secretary.

He goes on:

Ione Wells
Political correspondent

Dominic Raab has resigned - but he's coming out fighting.

We haven't yet seen the report, but Raab is insistent that the bar has been set "so low" for bullying.

He claims the inquiry dismissed "all but two" of the claims levelled against him, and says those two adverse findings were "flawed."

His main argument appears to be that ministers need to be able to give direct critical feedback, and exercise direct oversight, over their civil servant officials.

While he apologises for any "unintended" stress caused, he attributes this to the "pace, standards and challenge" he brought to the Ministry of Justice as justice minister.

One question now is whether he decides to take any further action.

He's punchily accused some civil servants of "systematic leaking of skewed and fabricated claims" and claims a senior official initiated a "coercive removal" of some of his private secretaries last year.

This all could still get very messy.