New COVID-19 business travel exemption for senior executives

Certain business travellers are no longer required to self-isolate when arriving in England from countries not included within existing travel corridors, provided they are undertaking activities likely to be of significant economic benefit to the UK. The change took effect from 5 December 2020.

This will be welcome news for senior executives in multinational companies, although a number of quite detailed conditions must be met before the exemption can be relied upon. These are set out in the government guidance here. We summarise below how the rules apply.

Who is exempt?

The exemption applies to individuals who satisfy four conditions. These are as follows.

Condition 1: Role

The individual must be a "senior executive". This means a director or, where there is no board of directors, a member of the equivalent management body.

Condition 2: Reason for travel

The senior executive must be a "multinational executive", a "returning executive" or an "international executive", defined as follows:

• a multinational executive is a senior executive of an overseas-based undertaking who has travelled to the UK to visit a UK-based branch or subsidiary of that undertaking which has 50 employees or more;
• a returning executive is a senior executive of a UK-based undertaking who has returned to the UK after undertaking overseas activities solely for the purpose of ongoing business operations that are necessary for that undertaking; and
• an international executive is a senior executive of an overseas-based undertaking who does not fall into either of the other two categories and who has travelled to the UK for business or investment purposes.

A UK-based undertaking means either an undertaking whose principal place of business is in the UK and has 50 employees or more, or a UK branch of an overseas-based undertaking which has 50 employees or more in the UK. 

Condition 3: Activity to be undertaken

During the period within which they would otherwise have been required to self-isolate, the senior executive must be carrying out an activity that meets the following requirements, depending on the reason for travel:

• a multinational executive must have a reasonable belief that the activity will more likely than not lead to the creation or continuation of 50 or more jobs in the UK-based branch or subsidiary which they are visiting;

• a returning executive must have a reasonable belief that the activity will more likely than not lead to the creation or continuation of 50 or more jobs in the UK-based undertaking on behalf of which they undertook overseas activities; and
• an international executive must have a reasonable belief that the activity will deliver significant economic benefit to the UK. This means that the activity has more than a 50 per cent chance of leading to:
  
  • the placing of a contract for the purchase of goods or services from a UK-based undertaking with a value of no less than £100 million or which will more likely than not lead to the creation or continuation of 50 or more jobs in that undertaking; or
  • an investment in a UK-based undertaking which will more likely than not lead to the creation or continuation of 50 or more jobs in that undertaking; or
  • the establishment of a new business in the UK which will more likely than not, within 12 months of the international executive arriving in the UK, lead to the creation of 50 or more jobs in that new business.

The government guidance sets out a number of examples of activities that either would or would not be likely to qualify for the exemption.

Condition 4: Need for physical presence

The activity undertaken must require the senior executive’s travel to and physical presence at a particular location and cannot reasonably be undertaken remotely, for example by phone or email. The exemption will not apply if the activities could be carried out by someone else who would not need to leave self-isolation.

Evidence

It is for the individual to determine for themselves whether their proposed business activities would qualify. They must provide requested details on the passenger locator form which has to be completed online before arriving in the UK. 

The traveller must carry, and be prepared to show, a letter signed by a senior executive from the UK-based business they are visiting (or, in the case of the creation of a new business in the UK, someone from the business proposing to create and own that new business) on the relevant business's headed notepaper. The letter must give a number of details as set out in the guidance, including what activities the traveller needs to undertake, where and on what date or dates, together with a short explanation of why those activities are considered to be more likely than not to deliver significant economic benefit to the UK.

COVID restrictions

The traveller must adhere to national and local COVID-19 restrictions whilst in the UK. They can only meet other people for the purposes of the exempted business activities and must do so in a COVID-secure way. 

The individual must self-isolate when not carrying out the exempted business activities or travelling to the place in England where they are working. If they are carrying out more than one permitted activity on the same day, such as a meeting followed by a site inspection, they can remain on site between activities provided they self-isolate for that period.

New quarantine rules

In a separate development relevant to those who are still required to self-isolate on arrival in England, from 15 December 2020 there will be a change to the rules under what is called the Test to Release scheme. This allows travellers to choose voluntarily to pay for a private COVID-19 test which must be booked before travelling to England. The earliest the test may be taken is five full days after leaving a place not on the travel corridor list. If the test is negative, the individual may stop self-isolating. This represents a potential reduction to the mandatory quarantine period which is currently 14 days.

Further information

For more information about how you may be able to rely on the business travel exemption, please contact either of the partners whose contact details are given below.