Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: Directors

(asked on 4th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has under the conditions of entitlement to the furlough scheme to enable furloughed company directors to undertake actions necessary to return their company to work without being in breach of those conditions.


Answered by
Jesse Norman Portrait
Jesse Norman
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

As noted in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guidance, company directors are bound by the Companies Act 2006 to fulfil their statutory duties. The Government aims to ensure that salaried directors can be furloughed and supported through this scheme, while still being able to meet their statutory duties. The guidance is clear that furloughed directors should do no more work than would reasonably be judged necessary to meet their statutory requirements, and that they should not do work of a kind they would carry out in normal circumstances to generate commercial revenue or provide services to or on behalf of their company.

The Government has extended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until October 2020. Extending the scheme in its current form until July will provide workers, businesses and the economy with clarity on this vital support. After July, the Government will introduce more flexibility to the furlough scheme in a measured way that protects people’s incomes and helps support furloughed employees as they return to work. From August through to the end of October, employers currently using the scheme will have more flexibility to bring their furloughed employees back to work part-time while still receiving support from the scheme. Employers using the scheme will start contributing some of the costs of their workers’ salaries, substituting in part the contribution that the Government is currently making. The Government will outline more details of how this will work by the end of May.

This scheme supplements the other significant support announced for UK businesses, including the Bounce Back Loans Scheme for small businesses, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the deferral of tax payments. More information about the full range of business support measures is available at www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/

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