COVID-19: Archived Guidance for Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

13 August, 2020

Update 17 August 2020:

Further to our note below, we are pleased to confirm that HMRC have taken our concerns (and those of other professional bodies) into account and the following pages on the main GOV.UK website now have a link to the guidance as published at 30 July:

Details of how to access archives of other pages (or archives for the guidance for the pages above at different dates) are set out below.

Original article as published on 13 August:

On 3 August, guidance on the mark I version of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was removed from the collection of guidance on GOV.UK. The guidance was removed as the deadline for final claims under the mark I scheme had closed on 31 July and HMRC wished to ensure that only the most relevant guidance was available to taxpayers.

We, and a number of other professional bodies, have raised concerns about the removal of the mark I guidance. While we appreciate that HMRC will want to avoid the risk of confusing those making claims under the mark II scheme, there is still the potential for enquiry into claims under mark I – equally employers might want to check claims made under pressure during the earlier months of the scheme to ensure their claims are correct. Employers therefore do still need to be able to access the relevant guidance to check their position and demonstrate what guidance they took into account in the event of an enquiry.

We understand that HMRC are looking at this. In the meantime, they have provided the following update on the Agent Forum (thread SA2020-6223), setting out how employers can access earlier guidance.

“Customers who wish to view prior versions of CJRS guidance are easily able to do so through the UK Government Web Archive. This is a public resource available through the National Archives.

To find prior versions of CJRS guidance using the archive, use the 'Search' function and enter the URL for the specific CJRS guidance page you wish to view a prior version of in the 'Find captures of a URL' field. This will allow you to access saved versions of the page from each individual day since the guidance page was first published on GOV.UK.

For ease of reference, if you click on each of the main CJRS guidance pages below , you will be taken to the UK Government Web Archive Page: