The Government is surprised by the GSD press release suggesting that unreasonable deadlines have been set for students to respond to a request for confirmation of expenses related to their maintenance grant for the third term of this academic year. At the time of issuing the press release, the GSD were aware that the deadline was being extended to 1 July. An email has already been sent to students confirming that as a result of representations made by students to the Department of Education, the deadline for providing the information required has been extended to Wednesday 1st July 2020. Notwithstanding this, the Department of Education has this afternoon already received around 250 responses from students. This represents almost 25% of all students.

The email to students further clarifies that students who have remained in the UK are required to confirm to the Department of Education that this is the case and that no further information will be required from those students. This matter is mentioned in the GSD press release but was not raised in the email sent from Mr Reyes to Mr Licudi. It was Mr Licudi himself who informed Mr Reyes of this in response to Mr Reyes' email.

Finally, the Government notes that the GSD press release does not mention that the GSD have no objection in principle to the exercise that the Government has embarked upon, as confirmed in the email from Mr Reyes to Mr Licudi. It is obvious that the GSD agrees with the Government's approach to this matter and its only issue relates to the timing of responses from students.