Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) individuals and (b) organisations made representations to his Department on the change to the Statutory Residence Test announced on 9 April 2020.

At the start of the pandemic, HMT and HMRC received a large number of requests for easements, all of which were considered, resulting in more than 80 COVID-19 related easements and exemptions being introduced to support businesses and individuals since March 2020, with many of these still in place.

The Government took a principled approach to changing the rules for the Statutory Residence Test so that any individual within certain critical sectors working on COVID-19 related activity would have benefited from the exemption.

For further details, please see the statement published by the Prime Minister’s office on 23 April:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/information-relating-to-the-ventilator-challenge-and-the-statutory-residence-test