Dear HM Revenue and Customs,

Please disclose the parts of the Child Benefit Manual that deal with the application of and consideration of the "right to reside" requirement for Child Benefit.

I note that in DD v HMRC (CB) [2020] UKUT 66 (AAC) (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk...) Upper Tribunal Judge Wright said (albeit obiter) that it may not be lawful for such details not to be made publicly available - para 56 of the judgment said the following:

"56. First, it is unclear whether the HMRC guidance was or is to be made publicly available. The guidance shown to me, and shared with CPAG in these proceedings, consisted, as ‘Current Guidance’ of the Child Benefit Manual and the Child Benefit Technical Manual, and as ‘Historic Guidance’ of the Child Benefit Procedural Manual. I was told, and this appeared to be the case, that the Child Benefit Manual contains the detail on how HMRC decide whether someone has a ‘genuine prospect of being engaged in employment’. However, CPAG said that neither it nor the Child Benefit Procedural Manual had been or were available to members of the public. Keeping such guidance, or any new version of it, out of sight of those persons directly affected by it might not be considered to be lawful: see, albeit in both cases in the context of departmental policies, Mandalia v SSHD [2015] UKSC 59; [2015] 1 WLR 4546, and B v SSWP [2005] EWCA Civ 929; [2005] 1 WLR 3796: R(IS)9/06 (at paragraph [43])."

We would be grateful if you could therefore make the relevant parts of the Child Benefit Manual public.

Yours faithfully,

Martin Williams