Section 297B | The proportion of skilled employees requirement

(1)The requirement of this section is that, where the conditions in subsection (2) are met, at all times in the period of 3 years beginning with the issue of the relevant holding—

(a)if the relevant company is a single company, the FTE skilled employee number must be at least 20% of the FTE employee number, and

(b)if the relevant company is a parent company, the FTE group skilled employee number must be at least 20% of the FTE group employee number.

(2)The conditions are that—

(a)the requirements one or more of sections 292A, 292AA, 294A and 297A (the maximum risk finance investments when relevant holding is issued requirement and the number of employees requirement) is or are met only by reason of the relevant company being a knowledge-intensive company at the time the relevant holding was issued, and

(b)the innovation condition in section 331A(6) was not met by the relevant company at that time.

(3)The requirement of this section is not to be regarded as failing to be met at a time when the relevant company, by virtue of section 292 (companies in administration or receivership), is not regarded as having ceased to meet the trading requirement.

(4)In this section “FTE employee number”, “FTE group employee number”, “FTE skilled employee number” and “FTE group skilled employee number” have the meaning given by section 331A(10) (meaning of “knowledge-intensive company”).