Letter to a job applicant's current or former medical practitioner requesting a medical report

If you are carrying out health checks as part of a recruitment exercise, this letter can be used to request a medical report from a job applicant's current or former medical practitioner. It should be used where you have made a job offer conditional on you obtaining a satisfactory medical report about the applicant. Prior to sending this letter, you must obtain the job applicant's consent to you obtaining a medical report from their doctor, and provide them with certain information about their rights. You can use Letter to job applicant requesting consent to medical report to do this . If the job applicant informed you that they wanted to have access to the report before it is given to you, then this letter will help you to notify the doctor of this. You must also let the applicant know that you have written to the medical practitioner at the same time as you send this letter. You can use Letter to a job applicant confirming medical report has been requested to do this.
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Job description

Use this template job description to set out your requirements when you are looking to recruit a staff member into your business. It will help ensure you are clear about what you’re looking for in candidates, and maximise the likelihood of attracting individuals with the right skills and experience for the job. You need to take care when writing a job description, to make sure it’s accurate and to avoid any discriminatory elements. The template has guidance notes to help you with this.
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Hiring staff
Using a recruitment agency to find staff
Q1:When should I consider using a recruitment agency to find new staff for my business?

In certain circumstances, you may want to consider using a recruitment agency to find potential new for you to employ directly (as opposed to using an agency that provides temporary ). For example, this could be appropriate if:

  1. you have a particularly urgent staffing need as an agency may be able to find someone more quickly if they already have potential applicants registered with them;

  2. you are looking to take on a more senior or one with particularly specialist skills as some agencies will specialise in searching for these types of (eg by headhunting who are not actively looking);

  3. you have limited in-house recruitment resources and it is therefore more efficient for you to use a recruitment agency to sift through applications and provide you with a shortlist; or

  4. you are starting out and therefore your business is unknown in the market.

Recruitment agents can have wider access to prospective candidates (eg because they will already have a pool of potential applicants registered with them and are likely to advertise in a wider range of places). They could also help you to determine the level of salary that you should be offering for a particular position as they may have a good understanding of the market rate for similar job roles.

You should bear in mind however that recruitment agencies are expensive as their fee is often charged as a percentage of the annual salary of the successful candidate; see Q&A 3 for more information.

You need to take care when sharing information about prospective candidates with a recruitment agency; see Q&A 2.

Q2:What do I need to know about sharing information about prospective candidates with a recruitment agency?

If you are using a recruitment agency, you need to make sure that you comply with your obligations in relation to prospective candidates and you will need to ensure that you do not discriminate.

    1. Check that the agency's name appears in any job advertisement and that it has provided information to applicants about how their will be used.

    2. Put in place a before the recruitment agency passes any on to you; see Data processing agreements and data sharing agreements for how to do this.

    3. Once you have been provided with the applicants' details from the agency, you must provide the applicants with certain privacy information as soon as possible and within set time-frames; see Q&A 9 for more details.

    4. Note that the recruitment agency is legally obliged to provide prospective candidates with information about who it will be sharing their with. This means that if you do not want to be identified by the recruitment agency in the early stages of the process, you can only be provided with completely anonymised information about prospective applicants.

  2. Equality

    You must not instruct, cause or induce an agency to by expressing preference for applicants in relation to age, , gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. You should also ensure that the recruitment agency is made aware of your equal opportunities policy; see HR policies for more information about equal opportunities policies and Staff handbook and HR policies for a template you can use.

Q3:What should I look out for in the terms and conditions of a recruitment agency?

You should ensure that you review a recruitment agency's terms and conditions before you appoint it to find prospective candidates on your behalf, and negotiate any terms that you do not consider to be appropriate for your business. While the extent to which you are able to do this will depend on your bargaining power and the particular terms in question, as a minimum you should look out for the following:

  1. fee structure (see Q&A 4);

  2. what counts as an introduction by the agency (see Q&A 5);

  3. confidentiality obligations (see Q&A 6); and

  4. data sharing provisions; the agency will be providing you with about candidates so you will need the agreement to cover data sharing between you. See Data processing agreements and data sharing agreements for what to look out for in .

Q4:What do I need to know about a recruitment agency's fee structure?

The fee charged by a recruitment agency will usually be a percentage of the first year's salary of a successful candidate that they have introduced. While the level of fee will vary depending on the agency, the industry you are working in and the particular role you are recruiting for, you should be able to negotiate this rate with the agency. This fee will normally be payable upfront when the candidate commences work with you.

The fee structure will normally provide for your business to be refunded in the event that the member leaves within a certain period after they are appointed. This will often be calculated as a proportionate sliding scale (ie the amount of the refund will reduce according to the length of time the works for you). Refunds will usually be excluded if you make the redundant within the refund period, but you should look out for provisions that result in no refund being payable if the leaves for other reasons, particularly those relating to their performance (eg gross ). You could also consider negotiating the length of the refund period to provide your business with additional protection in the event that the leaves (eg while a typical refund period will be three months after the starts working for your business, you may be able to negotiate this to six months).

Bear in mind that if you will be instructing a recruitment agency on a regular basis, you may be able to negotiate an introductory rate, whereby they offer you a reduced fee on the first round of recruitment that they undertake for you. If you agree to work with a certain recruitment agency exclusively they may also offer a reduced fee to you.

Q5:What counts as an introduction by a recruitment agency?

You should ensure that you understand clearly what will constitute an introduction by the recruitment agency of a candidate to you (ie what will trigger you paying the fee to them if you make a hire). This is important as in some circumstances you may also be approached separately by a candidate who has been put forward by the recruitment agency. The agency's terms will usually stipulate that if you hire any candidate (otherwise than through them) who they have introduced to you within a certain time of that introduction, you will be liable to pay them a fee. You should look out for any terms that seek to extend this period beyond 12 months of an introduction and negotiate a lower time frame where possible.

Be wary of situations in which you are working with more than one recruitment agency and they both introduce the same candidate to you. If you then hire that candidate, both agencies may seek to recover their fee from you. In such circumstances you should ensure wherever possible that you have written evidence about which introduction you saw first and seek legal advice if a fee dispute arises. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Finally, you should ensure that you are aware of how and when you must notify an agency that you will be making an offer to a candidate or if you will be dismissing an that they have introduced to you.

Q6:How do I make sure a recruitment agency keeps by business's information confidential?

If you do not want information about your business or the role you are recruiting for to be shared too widely (eg to avoid the information being seen by your competitors), you should ensure that you have confirmation in writing from the recruitment agency that they will not do so. You should also bear in mind at all times that your job specification may be shared widely (unless you have specified otherwise), and therefore consider carefully how you present the information and whether any information (eg salary) should be omitted.

Advertising a job
Q7:What do I need to think about before I advertise a job?

There are certain things you need to decide upon and prepare before you advertise a job. These include the following:

  1. consider whether you need to carry out a before you start the process (see Q&A 8);

  2. prepare a recruitment (see Q&A 9);

  3. prepare a job advert (see Q&A 10);

  4. decide whether you want candidates to send in a CV and cover letter or use an application form, in which case you will need to create a standardised application form for that purpose (see Q&A 14);

  5. consider whether to use an equality and diversity monitoring form (see Q&A 20); and

  6. decide where and how you are going to advertise (see Q&A 23).

Careful preparation of each of these documents is important to avoid allegations of and in order to comply with your obligations. Templates are provided to assist you where appropriate.

Q8:Do I need to carry out a data protection impact assessment before I start my recruitment process?

A () helps you to consider any risks to data posed by your planned recruitment process. You are legally required to carry out a if your use or storage of personal information about candidates is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms. For most standard recruitment processes, this will not be the case, and you will not be legally obliged to carry out a . However, you must always carry one out if:

  1. you will be asking applicants about criminal convictions on a large scale (see Q&A 16 for more information about when you can check criminal convictions);

  2. you will be gathering health data about applicants on a large scale (see Q&A 17 for more information about when you can gather health or information);

  3. you will be using automated decision-making or as part of your recruitment process (eg to mark a psychometric assessment) (see Q&A 27 for more information about using automated means in your decision-making); or

  4. you are getting information about candidates from sources other than the candidates themselves, eg by speaking to mutual contacts or checking their social media presence if you have a legitimate interest in doing so for the role (this is much more likely to be the case for a candidate's professional social media profiles rather than those used only for social purposes). You only do not need to carry out a in these circumstances if you have a comprehensive for candidates, including details of their rights over their data, what data you will collect and how you will use it, store it and delete it. See Staff recruitment privacy notice for a for job applicants.

Any you do carry out should be reviewed at regular intervals. It should also be revisited if you change your recruitment process, eg you introduce new technologies to the process. For guidance on how to carry out a see Data protection impact assessments, and for a policy with template form attached, see Data Protection impact assessment policy.

Q9:Do I need to provide job applicants with a privacy notice?

Yes.

There is a certain amount of information that you must provide to any job applicants before they send you information about themselves, including details of what you will do with any information you collect about them, and their rights under law. It is common to set out most of this information in your , which you should make available to applicants before they apply (eg by putting it on the recruitment page of your website and referring individuals to it in your job advertisements). See Staff recruitment privacy notice for an example policy which includes optionality to cover your business if you collect about candidates, namely if you perform criminal record checks or health checks before employment.

Providing this information to candidates is a legal requirement. Failure to comply can result in sanctions against your business from the , in the most serious cases including a fine of up to £17.5 million or 4% of your global (whichever is greater), or even legal action from candidates who have suffered losses as a result.

Bear in mind that if you are requesting applications by way of CV and cover letter, you may end up being provided with that is irrelevant or unnecessary to your recruitment process (eg some applicants may provide you with information such as their date of birth or reveal certain health information that is not required). To avoid this happening, consider instead using a tailored application form which asks candidates specific and relevant questions (see Q&A 15 and following for more information).

Q10:What should my job advert contain?

This is largely up to you, but you will need to ensure you include enough information to attract the right candidates.

As a minimum, you should include:

  1. the job title, name of the organisation, and the main aspects of the role such as location and type of contract;

  2. information about how applicants should apply (eg by emailing an application form), and when the closing date for applications is; and

  3. a link to your Staff recruitment privacy notice (see Q&A 9).

Consider also including the following:

  1. a job description for the role (see Q&A 11 for guidance and Job description for a template you can use);

  2. a person specification setting out the attributes necessary for the job and those which you consider desirable (see Q&A 12 for guidance and Person specification for a template you can use);

  3. any information you want to give about the ethos and workplace culture of your business; and

  4. information about pay and benefits; note that leaving this information out may affect your ability to attract candidates at the right level.

Note that if you are running a returner programme (ie to help people to return to work after a long break), it is important that you provide as much information as possible in your job advert, including any opportunities. This will help to ensure that you attract high-calibre returners to the position.

It is very important that you avoid discriminating in your advertisement; if you do, you are susceptible to possible legal action by potential applicants or the (). See Q&A 13 for further information.

In addition, you must not state that your job is only open to those who are, or are not, union members. If you do, an affected job applicant may make a complaint to the and you could be ordered to pay compensation (capped at £115,) or be ordered to take action to reduce the adverse effect on the person complaining.

Q11:How do I write a job description for a role?

The job description should include the job title, who the member of will be responsible for and to, and objectively set out the main duties and responsibilities of the role. Not only will this help you to clarify what you are looking for, but it will also help applicants determine whether or not they have the skills and experience required for the role. See Job description for a template that you can use.

You should review your job description before every recruitment exercise as it is important that it accurately describes the specific job in question. This is important for the following reasons:

  1. Ensuring appropriate candidates apply; failing to accurately reflect the job may encourage inappropriate candidates or dissuade suitable candidates from applying. For example, if the role could be done on a part-time or job basis, you should include this in the job description as it can widen the pool of potential candidates available to you.

  2. Avoiding ; see Q&A 13 for further information.

  3. Avoiding the need to change the duties of members later on. If your job description is not accurate you may need to make significant changes to the responsibilities or duties of a member after they have begun working for you. If this is done without their consent or proper authorisation under the terms of their contract, they may be able to resign and claim against you. See Process for changing employee contracts for further information.

Q12:How do I write a person specification for a role?

The person specification sets out the attributes which the ideal applicant for the role will possess, including their skills and abilities, experience and qualifications. You should distinguish between the minimum necessary criteria for a person to be able to do the job, and those which, while desirable, are not strictly necessary. Wherever possible, you should ensure that your requirements are set out in broad terms to allow yourself some room for manoeuvre in terms of how you assess applicants.

See Person specification for a template you can use.

As with the job description (see Q&A 11), the criteria in the person specification should be relevant, accurate and objectively justifiable in relation to the job you are recruiting for in order for you to avoid the risk of claims. You should review your person specification before every recruitment exercise as it is important that it accurately describes the criteria required for the specific role.

See Q&A 13 for further information about avoiding in your job description or person specification.

Q13:How do I ensure that I avoid discrimination in my job description or person specification?

When you advertise for a role, it is very important that you avoid discriminating against candidates on the basis of a . If you do, you are susceptible to possible legal action by applicants or the (); see Q&A 22 for further information about sanctions you could face.

To avoid this risk, bear in mind the following:

  1. The job description should not state that it involves a certain task if that task is not in practice part of the job role, as if someone is put off from applying you risk facing a claim. The advises that any tasks and duties in the job description should therefore be able to be objectively justified as being necessary for the role. The example is given of a job description which states that 'regular Sunday working' is required which could dissuade some Christians, who do not want to work on Sundays, from applying. If this duty has in fact been overstated and in reality only infrequent Sunday working is required, unless you are able to objectively justify its inclusion, you could face a claim of .

  2. You must avoid using language in the job description that suggests that you intend to in choosing who to interview or hire. For example, avoid terms like ‘dinner lady’ or ‘energetic, young candidate’ as these would indicate a preference based on gender, and age. Equally, do not specify that you are looking for a French person when what you actually need is a person who speaks French.

  3. If a task could be performed in more than one way, avoid specifying a particular method in your job description as this may against people who could perform the function but may not be able to do it in that specific way. Remember you are legally obliged to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate the needs of .

  4. The advises that you should not specify working hours or working patterns in your job description that are not necessary. For example, a job description that specifies a full-time role when it could actually be performed part-time or as a job could against women who are more likely to need the flexibility due to childcare responsibilities.

  5. advises ensuring that your job description does not suggest in any way that applicants should be a particular age (eg by stating that a particular number of years' experience is required or asking for qualifications that are not necessary for the role).

  6. Do not be unnecessarily prescriptive in describing what skills or qualifications are required. You could against certain groups if you are too specific when you do not need to be. For example, people from overseas are less likely to have -based qualifications (potentially on grounds of race), and older candidates are unlikely to have modern qualifications (potentially on grounds of age). Making clear that you will accept equivalent qualifications will help avoid this issue.

  7. Except in very limited circumstances, you must not include a health, fitness or other physical requirement as this could amount to against individuals or other applicants with (eg sex) unless it can be objectively justified for the job. Except in very limited circumstances, it is unlawful for you to ask a job applicant about their or health status until after they have been offered a job. See Q&A 17 and Q&A 18 for more information.

  8. You are only permitted to specify certain characteristics if you have a legitimate and reasonable occupational requirement to do so. For example, if you run a leisure centre you could legitimately require that an attendant for your female changing rooms be a woman and a theatre could legitimately cast someone of a particular age bracket for a role. You must be careful if you intend to include one of the characteristics listed in your job advert and if in any doubt, seek legal advice. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

  9. The government advises that, in light of the 's decision to leave the , you must not against citizens when you are recruiting for a role.

Note that you may include statements encouraging applications from under-represented groups as a voluntary positive action. For example, if ethnic minorities are under-represented in your workforce, you may state that you specifically welcome applications from ethnic minority candidates (although not to the exclusion of other candidates).

For a template job description you can use, see Job description.

Q14:Should I create a standard job application form?

Although you can invite applications by a CV and cover letter (which usually requires the least upfront effort on your part), there are several advantages to using a standardised application form:

  1. You can design the questions so that they are all relevant to the skills and attributes identified in your person specification, meaning that you do not have to sort through irrelevant information when assessing applicants. This is also helpful from a point of view as if you are requesting applications by CV and cover letter, you may end up being provided with that is irrelevant or unnecessary to your recruitment process.

  2. You can make sure that any information about applicants which could lead to or the appearance of is kept separately (for example, age, gender or status), leaving you less exposed to the risk of claims by applicants.

  3. It can help to ensure a consistent approach to your assessment of candidates when compiling your shortlist for interview (see Q&A 26).

See Q&A 15 for information about what your job application form should contain.

Q15:What should my job application form contain?

There are no set rules about what a job application form should contain. However, it is important that you bear in mind your obligations in relation to and ; this may mean that in practice you need to adapt your application form for each specific job, and you should therefore review it carefully before beginning a new recruitment process.

Bear in mind that some disabilities may require you to allow candidates to complete the application with someone over the telephone.

You must make sure do the following:

  1. State the name of your organisation and explain how information collected on the application form will be used. Only seek personal information that is relevant to the decision which is being made. For example, marital status, bank account details or date of birth will in many situations not be relevant to the decision to shortlist. Your application form should only ask for where it is directly relevant to the job in question and where you are allowed to collect such data under law. See When to use personal data for guidance about when you are permitted to process .

    A key part of your obligations is not collecting unnecessary information about people. It will likely be appropriate for you to tailor your application form to whatever role you are offering, rather than using a standard form to recruit for all your roles. You can use the skills and attributes identified in your person specification to guide the sort of questions you need to ask.

    Do not ask for any information that you will only need in the event that the individual gets the job (eg ask about skills and experience but do not include questions about bank details, which you will not require from unsuccessful candidates).

  2. Ask for the applicant's current employment situation and notice requirements and any skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience that are relevant to the job, asking for examples where necessary. Avoid asking for the dates unless these are relevant to the requirements of the role (this may be age ). See Q&A 13 for more information.

  3. Bear in mind that you can only ask for information about past criminal convictions (see Q&A 16) and/or health and (see Q&A 17) in very limited circumstances.

Q16:Can I ask a candidate to provide information about past criminal convictions when they apply for a job?

Yes, but only in limited circumstances.

You can only request information relating to criminal convictions where an applicant’s possession of a criminal record is relevant to their suitability for the job. On your application form you may wish to ask applicants whether they have any unspent criminal convictions. If a candidate consents, you can get a basic check about them for any role. You can get more detailed information about criminal convictions if you are legally required to for the role eg if it involves working with children or vulnerable adults. See Q&A 56 and following for full details of your additional obligations when getting criminal records checks and handling the resulting data.

Q17:Can I ask a candidate to provide information about their health when they apply for a job?

The general rule is that you must not ask an applicant about their health or until after you have offered them the job (on a conditional or unconditional basis), as doing so could amount to .

However, there are some limited circumstances in which you can ask whether an applicant has a earlier on in the recruitment process (eg on your application form), including:

  1. To ensure that reasonable adjustments can be made for the applicant to attend an interview or assessment eg if wheelchair access would need to be arranged or if the application needed to be provided in an accessible format such as Braille. You must make sure you make any adjustments specified.

  2. Monitoring the diversity of applicants; you should use an equality and diversity monitoring form for this – see Q&A 20 for more information.

  3. Where the question relates to the person's ability to carry out a specific function that is intrinsic to the job or where the applicant needs to have a particular in order to do the job; see Q&A 18 for further information.

  4. Where you ask if a person is with a view to them benefiting from measures you have put in place to improve the employment rate of people in your business eg) a guaranteed interview scheme for people. You must make it clear you are asking for this purpose.

  5. If you are required to vet applicants for national reasons(this will be very rare).

Bear in mind that if you collect health information, this is and there are other obligations that you must comply with. See When to use personal data for further guidance.

Q18:Can I ask a candidate to give me information about their health or disability if it will be relevant to their suitability for the job?

Yes, but in very limited circumstances.

You can only ask this question if it relates to the person's ability to carry out a specific function that is intrinsic to the job. An example provided by the is of a construction recruiting scaffolders; in this scenario, it would be lawful for the to ask about applicants' abilities to climb ladders and scaffolding.

You could also ask the question where there is a legitimate and reasonable occupational requirement for an applicant to have a particular (eg if you want to recruit a blind project who has personal experience of blindness).

Bear in mind that if you collect health information, this is and there are other obligations that you must comply with. See When to use personal data for further guidance.

Q19:Do I have to monitor equality and diversity during my recruitment process?

You do not have to, but many businesses choose to.

An equality and diversity monitoring form can be used to collect information about an applicant, including age group, disabilities, marital status, race/nationality/ethnic group, religion or belief, gender and sexual orientation. You may want to use this form to build a picture of who is applying to your organisation and to keep equality of opportunity within your business under review. You may also be collecting this information for the purposes of voluntary reporting; eg you may wish to report information on , mental health and wellbeing through the government's voluntary reporting framework.

See Q&A 20 for information about what to put in your equality and diversity monitoring form.

Q20:What goes in my equality and diversity monitoring form?

If you decide to send applicants an equality and diversity monitoring form, you must bear in mind the following:

  1. the form should generally not be used to collect information about an applicant's pregnancy or maternity status, or gender reassignment;

  2. the form should not ask applicants for their names and you should try to ensure that the information contained on it is kept in an anonymised form at all times (see Q&A 21 for further information);

  3. the form should state that completing it is voluntary and should explain why you are collecting the information (ie to monitor the diversity of your workforce);

  4. the form should be separate to the application form (if you are using one), and it should be kept separately from any other recruitment documentation that identifies the individual. For example, you could send it out to applicants on receipt of their application;

  5. the form absolutely must not be used to make any sort of decision about who to interview or hire or you risk claims of from applicants. The recommends that as best practice, wherever possible the people responsible for these forms should not be the same people who make decisions about who to interview or hire; and

  6. you must comply with your obligations when handling the contained on this forms, unless it is completely anonymised. See Q&A 21 for more information.

Q21:Do I have any data protection obligations when using an equality and diversity monitoring form?

No, provided you keep the information you collect anonymised. This will avoid the need to comply with any requirements, and to avoid any appearance of in your recruitment process.

To ensure anonymity, your equality and diversity monitoring form should be sent out separately to applicants (ie not attached to your application form but sent out separately eg by email on receipt of a job application). Avoid asking for details that could easily identify a particular candidate, eg information about gender reassignment. Obviously the data gleaned from the form should not be traceable in any way to details that could link it to the individual such as the email address from which it was received.

Q22:What are the risks if I discriminate in my job advert?

It is very important that you avoid discriminating when advertising for a role; if you do, you are susceptible to possible legal action by potential applicants or the ().

The has the power to carry out an investigation into your business if it suspects that you may have discriminated and may require you to prepare an action plan to address your unlawful activity or recommend any such action that your business should take. Alternatively, if the believes that you have discriminated, it could enter into an agreement with you in which you undertake to take or refrain from taking certain action(s), but if the thinks that you have failed to comply (or are unlikely to comply) with the agreement, it can apply to court for an to prevent you from taking any discriminatory action. It can also generally ask a court for an against your business to stop any if it thinks that you have or are likely to discriminate.

Q23:How should I advertise a job?

Before advertising a job, you will need to think about where you want to advertise it. The first decision you should make is whether to advertise the vacancy internally within your business alone, or whether to open the recruitment process up to external applicants too. It is usually advisable to do both. See Q&A 24 for more information about advertising internally.

If you decide to advertise externally, you will need to consider the best way of reaching potential job applicants for your business. The following methods each have specific advantages and disadvantages, and an should consider what recruitment methods are most appropriate and cost-effective for any particular vacancy:

  1. Internet (such as online job boards, via professional networking sites or through social media) and print media (such as a job section of a newspaper)

    This is a relatively cheap option but the selection of where to advertise a vacancy can affect the calibre of the candidates that are attracted.

  2. Word of mouth (for example, a referral scheme with existing )

    This may attract candidates who are high calibre and who may be a good fit with the organisation (given that a referral will usually be from someone who knows the organisation and what it wants), but it carries a risk of as you are limiting your search to the family, friends and acquaintances of your current pool of .

  3. Recruitment agencies

    These are expensive, but may be the most appropriate if the role in question is particularly important and finding the right candidate is the priority; see Q&A 1 and following for more information about using a recruitment agency.

To avoid the risk of age by using only channels aimed at certain age groups, recommends advertising the role using at least two different channels (eg in print media and online). Print and online job boards are cheaper but the selection of where to advertise a vacancy can affect the calibre of the candidates that are attracted.

Q24:What must I think about when advertising a job internally within my business?

Advertising internally has some notable advantages. It is more cost-effective than external advertisement. Further, it is likely to boost the morale of the workforce if good opportunities are offered to existing . If you do advertise internally, you should:

  1. do so openly so that everyone in your organisation has the opportunity to apply;

  2. ensure that absent (including those on or sick leave) are informed of any vacancies, or you may face a claim; and

  3. note that you have are entitled to the same opportunities to find permanent work within your business as other who are currently working for you in the same or a similar role at the same location.

However, limiting your recruitment methods exclusively to internal advertisement limits the pool of potential candidates. This in turn can lead to . If your current lack diversity in eg age, race, or sex, only recruiting from within will exclude other groups. It is therefore generally important to advertise widely so you can select from a wider and more diverse pool.

Selecting and interviewing job applicants
Q25:How do I choose the right person for the job?

Finding the right person for your business can take time, and usually involves a shortlisting stage and an interview stage, although you can use alternatives instead of or in addition to traditional interviews. The stages of recruitment are:

  1. producing a shortlist (see Q&A 26);

  2. interviewing shortlisted applicants (see Q&A 29); and

  3. other practical assessments of applicants, eg assessment centres, intellectual tests, psychological tests or physical tests where appropriate (see Q&A 33).

Q26:How should I decide which job applicants to shortlist?

A shortlist is the list of applicants who are to progress to the next stage of the recruitment process, whether that is interview or another method of assessment.

There is no set method for choosing to shortlist, but you should agree a marking system in advance before the applications are assessed and create the shortlist objectively, fairly and by applying the same selection criteria consistently to all applicants. Ideally, more than one person should be involved in the decisions at each stage and all people who are involved should be familiar with your equal opportunities policy (see HR policies for more information on equal opportunities policies; the template Staff handbook and policies includes a template policy, which you can choose to generate either on its own or as part of a full ).

Note that you should keep a record of the process; see Q&A 36 and following for further information.

The following points give a suggested method for shortlisting candidates:

  1. wait until the date you set for applications has passed to avoid bias in favour of any internal applicants who you already know, and set a number of candidates you would like to interview;

  2. using your marking system, go through all application forms/CVs, eliminating those which clearly show that the applicant is not suitable for the job. You could consider anonymising CVs and application forms to avoid any in the process; and

  3. consider the remaining applications to select those you wish to offer an interview. You may find it helpful to carry out a short telephone interview if you would like more information before selecting candidates for a full interview.

Once you have created your shortlist, organise the next stage of the process and contact applicants letting them know the outcome of their application. For information about conducting interviews see Q&A 29. For whether you have to give feedback to rejected applicants, see Q&A 35.

If your decision-making will be automated in any way, see Q&A 27 for your additional obligations.

Q27:Can I use automated means or profiling (automated decision-making) as part of my recruitment process?

In most cases, you can use automated decision-making or for recruitment if:

  1. it is used as part of a wider decision-making process (ie there is also proper human involvement by a person with authority to change the decision); and

  2. you have carried out a , and taken any measures that arise (see Data protection impact assessments for how to do this and Data Protection impact assessment policy for a policy and template you can use).

These rules are in place because, although it can be an efficient tool, particularly for larger businesses, the lack of human involvement poses a risk to the rights and freedoms of candidates, for example anyone who is rejected as a result of a machine-generated aptitude test score. In most cases, you must therefore not make recruitment decisions solely through automatic means like this any more; although there are some exceptional circumstances in which you may do so (see Q&A 28).

Q28:In what circumstances can I use automated decision-making alone to make a recruitment decision?

Exceptionally, you may be able to use an automated decision-making process with no human oversight for recruitment if it is a reasonable way to comply with a legal requirement, for example if you are subject to obligations by an industry regulator that affects your baseline recruitment requirements.

If this is the case for your business, you must do the following:

  1. You must bring your use of automated decision-making to applicants' attention at the time they send you their information, providing meaningful information about the logic involved in the decision-making and the significance and envisaged consequences for applicants. This will usually be done in a ; see Staff recruitment privacy notice for a template which includes an option to add this information and Q&A 9 for more information.

  2. As soon as after making the decision, you must notify the individual of the decision and that it was made solely using an automated process, giving them one month from receipt of your notification to ask you to reconsider or decide afresh without using the automated process.

  3. If the individual makes a request, you must deal with it within one month (you can extend this to up to three months if the matter is particularly complex or the same person has made a number of requests). Once you have reconsidered or decided the matter afresh without using your automated process, write to the individual explaining what you have done to comply and the outcome.

Note that you cannot charge a fee for complying with such a request, unless the request is clearly unfounded or excessive, which is unlikely to be the case.

You will not usually be legally permitted to use your automatic decision-making on any eg health information.

Q29:How should I conduct job interviews?

Once you have created a shortlist (see Q&A 26), you can move on to interviewing candidates. Interviews should be conducted on the basis of the application form, job description, person specification and any other criteria agreed beforehand by the interviewers. You must keep appropriate records from the interviews; see Q&A 36.

Some points to bear in mind are as follows:

  1. The people carrying out interviews should prepare questions in advance based on the person specification, job description and the information provided in the application form or CV/cover letter.

  2. Interviewers should be familiar with the business’s equal opportunities policy (see HR policies for more information on equal opportunities policies and Staff handbook and policies for a template policy you can use), and should understand that there are a number of characteristics which cannot be taken into consideration, as to do so is discriminatory and so illegal. These are , age, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. You should not ask questions about any of these characteristics, as to do so puts you at risk of legal action over , and may well put good candidates off accepting a job offer from you; see Q&A 31 for the position where a relates to the candidate's ability to do the job in question.

  3. You should avoid making any promises in interviews that you cannot keep; if you make any during an interview, for example relating to pay or bonuses, then these could potentially be enforced against you if you later try to change your mind (although it is not common for new to take it that far, it can still cause ill-feeling in your workforce).

  4. Only those individuals within your business who are concerned with recruitment need information on candidates for a role. Be careful not to inadvertently give out information about candidates more widely eg by using a candidate's full name in the diary when booking an interview. You must ensure that you comply with the provisions of your recruitment at all times; see Staff recruitment privacy notice for a template you can use.

Q30:Can I ask whether a candidate plans to have children during an interview?

No. Pregnancy and maternity are and asking candidates questions about them (or taking them into account during your selection process) will in most cases amount to . You must not ask a candidate whether they plan to have children, or what childcare arrangements they have in place.

Q31:Can I take a protected characteristic, such as disability or gender, into account if it affects the candidate's ability to do the job?

Yes; whilst taking into account a when selecting job applicants is generally discriminatory and so illegal, the characteristic may be taken into account if it genuinely affects the applicant's ability to do the job.

For example:

  1. if a leisure centre wanted to employ a changing room attendant of the same sex as the room’s users it could choose applicants based on sex;

  2. if a theatre needed to cast someone of a particular age bracket for a role, it could choose applicants based on age; and

  3. if a leisure centre was recruiting lifeguards, it could reject an applicant based on the fact that their made them unable to swim.

Q32:Can I use positive discrimination with job applicants to boost diversity in my business?

Yes; you can use positive to help to boost diversity in your business – ie favouring somebody who has a over somebody who does not. However, you should only do this if the applicants are equally qualified for a role, or else you may be discriminating against the person who does not have a .

Q33:How should I carry out other practical assessments of job applicants?

As well as interviews (see Q&A 29), you might also want to rely on another kind of assessment, such as ability tests, role plays, psychometric tests or personality questionnaires.

If you want to use an alternative method of testing, you should keep the following points in mind:

  1. Unless the purpose of the test is to assess English language skills, you should make sure that candidates who do not speak English as a first language are not disadvantaged.

  2. You should not rely on personality or psychometric tests alone; they should only ever be used in conjunction with other methods of assessment. If you do use a test of this kind, it should be properly and professionally designed, administered, and validated.

  3. The tests should be the same for all candidates, unless you need to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate specific disabilities or because a candidate is pregnant. For example, it may be reasonable to allow a partially sighted candidate the opportunity to take a written test orally or to provide them with written material in large print.

  4. You may wish candidates to carry out unpaid tasks as part of a trial period to establish whether they have the relevant skills for the job; see Q&A 34 if you will be doing this.

  5. Test papers, marking notes and and records of decisions you have made will need to be kept on file for a short time to ensure that you are able to justify the decisions you reach and respond to any complaints (eg if a claim is brought against your business by an unsuccessful candidate). See Q&A 36 for further information.

Q34:Can I ask candidates to carry out unpaid tasks to test them during the recruitment process?

Yes, as long as it is genuinely for recruitment purposes. If, in reality, you are using the opportunity to obtain services from individuals which will be helpful to your business, the or may be payable. There are no definitive rules about whether a trial period should be paid or not, but you should bear the following in mind:

  1. the trial period should last no longer than is reasonably necessary in order for you to assess the candidate's abilities (in most cases a few hours will be sufficient, and the government has stated that a trial lasting more than a day will almost always require payment);

  2. the tasks you ask the candidate to undertake should assess the skills required of the position they are interviewing for; and

  3. the trial should usually take place in a simulated environment under close observation, and so should not provide a commercial benefit to your business.

Q35:Do I have to give feedback to rejected job applicants?

You do not have to give feedback to an unsuccessful applicant. However, if you do not do so when asked, the applicant may be led to believe that they have been discriminated against. In such circumstances, they may write to you with questions in order to determine whether they were in fact discriminated against and confirms that it is best practice for such questions to be dealt with seriously and promptly by . It is sensible for you to give feedback to unsuccessful candidates explaining in objective terms why the applicant was unsuccessful, although it may not be possible in all cases, given the time such feedback can require.

For this reason, it is important for you to retain enough documentation during the recruitment process to enable you to justify the recruitment decisions that you take. Not only will this help you to provide feedback to unsuccessful applicants, but it will also help you to defend any claims of during the recruitment process. See Q&A 36 for further information. Note that you must have made it clear to applicants what information you would be retaining and for how long in your recruitment ; see Staff recruitment privacy notice for a template you can use.

Bear in mind when dealing with requests for feedback that anyone is entitled to request a copy of all the information that you hold about them, known as a . If this is what the candidate is asking for, you are likely to be legally required to send them a copy of what you have, including any notes made about them during the selection process. See Subject access requests for how to deal with a and Subject access request response template for a template you can use to respond.

Q36:What records about candidates should I keep from my recruitment process?

There are no hard and fast rules about what documentation you should keep, but as a minimum it should include:

  1. your job description, person specification and job advertisement(s);

  2. any application forms, CVs or cover letters you received from candidates;

  3. records of discussions and decisions made by your recruitment team (eg the shortlisting panel and interviewers);

  4. any assessment results; and

  5. your correspondence with the candidates.

You must bear in mind that:

  1. Any records you keep that contain (which may include panellists' notes and other selection decisions taken) must be disclosed to applicants if they make a . See Subject access requests for how to deal with a and Subject access request response template for a template you can use to respond.

  2. As best practice, you should therefore try to keep records and notes made during your recruitment processes to a minimum. Record the decisions you have made but ensure that your notes only contain the necessary information; they should be full enough to justify your decisions, but they should not include irrelevant details volunteered by candidates, eg if someone mentions their marital status or whether or not they plan to start a family.

  3. You have a duty to ensure the information you have about candidates is accurate and the candidates have a right to insist you correct it if it is not. See Requests to correct inaccurate data and Checklist for responding to a request to correct data for guidance on how to deal with these requests.

  4. Ensure that you only keep records for the minimum amount of time necessary; for guidance on what is appropriate, see Q&A 37.

Recruitment records must be kept secure at all times. See Secure data storage for more information about how to ensure that is stored securely and Data protection policy for a template policy you can use to ensure that is kept securely at all times, which can be produced individually or as part of our Staff handbook and policies.

Q37:How long can I keep recruitment records for?

You must only keep recruitment records (eg interview or assessment notes, application forms or CVs) for as long as necessary. Your data retention periods should be set out clearly in your recruitment . See Staff recruitment privacy notice for a template you can use.

In general, any recruitment records held by your business should be kept for at least three months after the recruitment process has ceased, as you may need these to defend against claims of .

Beyond that period, if a candidate has been unsuccessful or has not accepted an offer of employment, records about them should generally be deleted as soon as possible.

When a job applicant accepts an offer of employment, you will need to transfer any relevant that you have obtained during the recruitment process to their personnel file; any that has no relevance to the ongoing employment relationship should be deleted securely after three months have passed, unless you have any ongoing need for it. Note that if you do a right to work check, you must keep a clear copy of the check for at least two years after the member's employment with you ends; see Q&A 51 and following.

Note that there are special rules about data from criminal record checks (see Q&A 57) and health checks (see Q&A 63).

Q38:Can I keep details about unsuccessful candidates so that I can contact them about future vacancies?

Yes, but you should seek the consent of the applicants concerned before doing so. If you are storing for longer than three months, for any reason, you should review your retention of it regularly in line with your data retention policies and must ensure that it is kept up to date or deleted when no longer necessary. You must not use the you retain for any purpose unrelated to the recruitment process without the individual's consent.

Making a job offer and negotiating terms
Q39:How do I make a job offer?

Once you have decided on the right person for the job (for more information on the selection process, see Q&A 25 and following), you will need to make a formal job offer.

You can offer the job verbally, but you should always confirm the offer in writing and ask the applicant to respond to the offer in writing. You can choose to enclose with your offer letter a and/or a , or these may follow at a later date. See Q&A 40 for further information.

Q40:What should a job offer letter contain?

You should always confirm a job offer in writing. You can choose to enclose with your offer letter a and/or a , or these may follow at a later date:

  1. Offer letter with employment contract

    If you will be providing the employment contract with the offer letter, it will only need to state very basic terms of employment (eg job title and pay).

  2. Offer letter without employment contract

    If you will not be providing the employment contract until a later date, the offer letter will normally need to confirm more detailed terms of the offer (job title, salary, start date, benefits etc).

    For a template you can adapt to your preferred situation, see Offer letter.

In both cases, you should ensure that the offer letter specifies any conditions to which the offer is subject; see Q&A 41.

For a template contract you can adapt to your needs, see Employment contract. It will be important to retain a signed copy of the offer letter and/or contract in the member's personnel records. For more information about your obligations when keeping records about your , see Records and staff data.

Remember that you must not against an applicant by offering less favourable terms on the grounds of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, , pregnancy or maternity, marital status, or gender reassignment (for example, by giving a member of a longer ). If you do, the applicant may take legal action against you.

Q41:Can I make my job offer conditional on receiving satisfactory references or background checks?

Yes; the following are common conditions, and any that are applicable should be specified in your offer letter (see Q&A 40):

  1. confirmation that the applicant is free to work in the or has an appropriate work permit or immigration approval to work (for how to check the right to work, see Q&A 51);

  2. receipt of references which are satisfactory in your opinion, as opposed to merely requiring satisfactory references which leaves scope for dispute over whether the references supplied are in fact satisfactory (for how to check references, see Q&A 58);

  3. confirmation that the applicant holds the qualifications they claim to have or have obtained any qualifications specifically required for the job (for how to check qualifications, see Q&A 61);

  4. receipt of a medical report or completed medical questionnaire which is satisfactory (for when health checks are appropriate and how to carry them out, see Q&A 62);

  5. that the applicant is free from any restrictions from previous employment that would prevent them from starting work as proposed and, where they are to hold office as a , confirmation that they are not subject to any restrictions that would prevent them from doing so. For how to check for restrictions from previous employment, see Q&A 69 and for more information on service agreements, see Directors' service agreements;

  6. receipt of any background checks that are required professionally or due to the nature of the job that is being offered; and

  7. a time scale within which to meet any conditions and/or for the candidate to accept the offer.

For a template offer letter you can use, see Offer letter.

Q42:What should I do if an applicant wants to negotiate on a job offer?

Once you have made a job offer, the applicant may want to negotiate some of the terms of their employment contract (eg salary, length of period, length of , or any restrictions that you have proposed in the employment contract). These matters will largely be commercial decisions for your business to make based on your need to recruit and the skills and experience that the applicant may bring.

When negotiating terms of employment however, you must ensure that you do not inadvertently against your existing members of by offering enhanced rates of pay or benefits to your new member. There are limited circumstances in which you can justify paying incoming more than equivalent existing ; usually the difference must be properly justifiable in order to be legal, eg because the incoming individual has more qualifications or experience. See Q&A 43 and Q&A 44 for further information.

Q43:How do I make sure I am offering equal pay between comparable male and female staff?

Where a man and a woman are doing equivalent work, you must make sure you offer them equal contractual terms, including contractual pay (eg basic pay, non-discretionary bonuses, performance related benefits etc). This applies to , and apprentices.

Working out when men and women are performing equal work is not always straightforward; they will be doing so if one of the following applies:

  1. It is the same work

    The woman's work is the same as the man's, or similar in that the differences in the work are not of any practical importance.

    For example, Andrew and Anna work for you as machine operators, carrying out the same work. Several times a year, the machine parts need to be changed. This takes 30 minutes but the parts are heavy and the task requires physical strength. You pay Andrew more than Anna because he can change the parts himself, whereas Anna needs help. This is wrong and risks a successful equal pay claim from Anna. The essential nature of Andrew's and Anna's work is the same, and changing the machine parts constitutes only a minor difference. They should be receiving equal pay.

  2. The work has been rated equal

    The woman's work has been rated as equal to the man's under a carried out at your business.

  3. The work is of equal value

    The woman's work is judged as being of equal value to the man’s, in that it requires similar levels of skill, effort and decision-making. Whether or not two roles are of equal value is entirely dependent on the specifics of the situation and it can be difficult to gauge.

    For example, Barbara works for you in a canteen. Ben works for you as a joiner on the factory floor. Their work can be considered to be of equal value on the basis that similar levels of effort and skill are required.

See Q&A 44 for the limited exception to this general rule.

Q44:Can I offer new applicants more money or benefits than existing staff who do similar jobs?

In most situations this is not a good idea; it is likely to lead to dissatisfaction within your workforce at best and claims of at worst.

  1. First, bear in mind that where a man and a woman are doing equivalent work, you must make sure you offer them equal contractual terms); failure to do so will be discriminatory. See Q&A 43 for more information.

    If you take on a new male and he has negotiated a higher salary than that which you pay an existing female who is in the same job role as him, her employment contract will normally be automatically modified to ensure that her pay is as favourable.

    The only way you can pay an applicant more than another member of the opposite sex performing equal work (or offer them other more favourable terms) is if you have a genuine, material reason for doing so that does not have anything to do with gender and it is a proportionate way for you to achieve your legitimate business .

    Example: you have two workshops, one in Nottingham and one in London. The living costs in London are higher than they are in Nottingham and therefore you pay in London more. Annie works as a machine operator in Nottingham, where she is paid £10 per hour. Albert does the same job in London, where he is paid £12 per hour. There is a genuine and material accounting for the difference between Annie and Albert’s terms – the geographical location of their employment. Therefore, you can legally pay Albert more.

  2. You may also risk discriminating against your existing on grounds of age, , gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation by offering a new enhanced pay or benefits. Benefits include contractual or discretionary benefits such as meal vouchers, car parking spaces, bonuses, , healthcare, cars, child care etc. For example, you may face a race claim if your new white is offered a discretionary welcome bonus that was not offered to an equivalent black .

    To avoid claims, you must be able to show that the enhanced benefit is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate . This will depend on the facts, but you may be able to argue that the additional benefits offered reflect the fact that the new has more experience or a more extensive skill set, or because there is a skills shortage in the market and you were struggling to recruit and retrain for that particular role.

Q45:Can I withdraw a job offer?

This depends on whether or not it has been accepted yet.

If your offer has not yet been accepted, you can withdraw it. If it has, then you may be entitled to but this depends on the terms of the offer. If you have included certain pre-conditions, eg the provision of references that you deem satisfactory and evidence of qualifications (see Q&A 58 and Q&A 61) and any of these pre-conditions is not satisfied, then you can withdraw your offer.

For a template letter containing example pre-conditions, see Offer letter.

Q46:How do I withdraw a job offer?

If you want to withdraw an offer, you should confirm the decision in writing, eg by sending a letter or email notifying the applicant of the withdrawal. The withdrawal will only take effect once it is received by the applicant.

If you withdraw an offer after acceptance, there is a risk that the applicant may allege that it was withdrawn unlawfully and attempt to take legal action against you. Therefore, it is advisable for you to document your rationale for the withdrawal, retain evidence of the process by which the decision was reached and keep hold of a copy of the confirmation of the decision. You will need to keep these records for at least six years, as you may need them to defend against a claim for . Beyond that period, any records containing information about the applicant should be securely deleted. Remember that job applicants can request copies of records or documents containing their that you hold by making a and the data must be disclosed if such a request is made; see Subject access requests for further information about this.

Background checks on job applicants
Q47:What checks should I carry out before hiring a job applicant?

It is important that you carry out certain checks before you decide to hire an applicant:

  1. right to work checks (see Q&A 48 and following);

  2. reference checks (see Q&A 58);

  3. qualification checks (see Q&A 61);

  4. health checks, where appropriate (see Q&A 62); and

  5. checks on restrictions from previous employment, eg if the applicant is bound by a non-compete agreement by their former (see Q&A 69).

You should make job offers conditional upon these checks delivering results which are satisfactory in your opinion to avoid any argument about whether the results of these check are in fact satisfactory. See Q&A 39 and following for information about making job offers and Offer letter for a template offer letter you can use to make a job offer condition upon satisfactory pre-employment checks.

In general, you should avoid vetting applicants by actively making your own enquiries to third parties about the applicant’s background and circumstances as it is particularly intrusive. If you will be carrying out a vetting or verification exercise of successful applicants during the recruitment process, you need to inform potential applicants of this fact, including how you will be carrying out such verification, as soon as possible (eg in your job advert or on your application form).

Q48:Do I need to check whether a job applicant has a right to work in the UK?

Yes. You and/or your may commit an offence if you employ someone who does not have a right to work in the . The penalties can be significant, including a hefty fine or even a prison sentence in serious cases.

You must conduct right to work checks on anyone you intend to hire before they start work. Do not make assumptions about a person's right to work in the based on race or national origins; if you only check the right to work in certain cases then you risk discriminating between applicants on the basis of their national origins or race, which may lead to an applicant taking legal action against you. You should make all job offers conditional upon confirmation of the right to work in the ; see Offer letter for an example offer letter you can use.

See Q&A 51 for how to do a right to work check.

Q49:At what point should I carry out a right to work check?

To avoid allegations of from applicants, you should check the right to work after the selection process has been concluded and a job offer has been made. You should make job offers conditional upon the right to work checks delivering results which you take to be satisfactory; see Q&A 39 and following for more information about making job offers and Offer letter for a template offer letter you can use.

Q50:What if I find that the applicant does not have a right to work in the UK or only has it for a limited time?

Job applicants may only have a right to work in the for a limited time. Provided that they can produce acceptable documentation, applicants with a time-limited right to work should not be treated any less favourably than other applicants.

If an applicant does not have a general right to work in the , then they can work in the if they have a work visa from a licensed sponsor. You can register as a licensed sponsor, but for most businesses, it will not be worth your time as the process is lengthy, onerous and costly. Further, the law regulating this area is very complex and it changes frequently. It is recommended that you seek independent legal advice if you wish to explore the possibility of sponsorship. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Q51:How do I check a job applicant has a right to work in the UK?

You can choose to either conduct a right to work check online using the Government's Online Service, you can conduct a check manually or, in some cases, you can use certified Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) service providers (called Identity Service Providers (IDSP)) to carry out digital checks on your behalf. You can find a list of certified IDSPs here.

The advantage of using the government online service is that it provides a simplified process, removing the requirement for you to rely on hard copy documents. However, the service is not available for all circumstances; if the service is not available for the individual in question, you will need to conduct a manual check. Note that you must use the online right to work check service for individuals using an UKVI account e-visa, holding a biometric residence card, biometric residence permit (BRP) or frontier permit (FWP).

Note that, from 1 January 2025 onwards, biometric residence permits (BRPs) have been decommissioned. Individuals in possession of BRPs or physical immigration documents must move to a UKVI e-visa account to prove their immigration status online by 31 March 2025. BRPs and other physical immigration documents remain valid until that date.

You must not against a job applicant in relation to the method used to carry out their right to work check; for instance if they are not eligible to use the online service.

See Q&A 52 for how to do a right to work check online and Q&A 53 for how to do it manually. Guidance on using IDSP to carry out a digital check is currently outside the scope of this service. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Q52:How do I do a right to work check online?

You can carry out a right to work check online using the Government's Online Service.

This is a free, voluntary service, which provides you with access to up-to-date information about a member's right to work. You will not be able to use this service in all circumstances and before you can use it, you will have to obtain the permission of your prospective member and they will need to provide you with a ' code' to view their information. Note that you must access the ' part of the service; it will not be a compliant check if you have simply viewed the information provided to your prospective member when they view their profile.

Once you have used the service and you have confirmed that your prospective member is entitled to work in the , which includes you being satisfied that the photograph on the online check is the member in question, you must keep a clear copy of the check for at least two years after the member's employment with you ends.

Q53:How do I do a manual right to work check?

To conduct a manual right to work check, you will need to obtain original versions of certain documents. Note that you are not able to conduct manual right to work checks for individuals holding a biometric residence card, biometric residence permit (BRP) or frontier permit (FWP) and you must instead use the online service (see Q&A 52).From 1 January 2025 BRPs will be fully discontinued and replaced by the UKVI online e-visa. Individuals in possession of a BRP or other physical documentation will be able to use these documents to prove their right to work until 31 March 2025.

The documents you will need to check are set out by the government. The government website contains a useful right to work checklist and detailed guidance on the checklist which explains the documents you can accept.

In checking the documents, you must

  1. obtain the person's original documents;

  2. check them in the presence of the holder;

  3. make and retain clear electronic or hard copies of the documents; and

  4. make a record of the date you performed the check by writing on your copies 'The date on which this right to work check was made: [insert date]'. Just writing the date is not sufficient.

Copies should be taken of any pages containing the holder's nationality, photograph, signature, the date of expiry or any information indicating the holder has an entitlement to enter or remain in the and undertake the work in question. The copy should be an unalterable copy – so either a physical photocopy or an unalterable scanned copy saved in a JPEG or PDF format. You should keep these copies securely for the duration of the applicant's time working at your business, and for a further two years after they have stopped working for you. You will need to consider your obligations when storing these copies; see Q&A 36 and following for more information.

When analysing the documents, you must check that:

  1. the photographs and dates of birth are consistent with the individual's appearance;

  2. the expiry dates for permission to work in the have not passed;

  3. any work restrictions that may restrict what type of work the individual can do (for students, it will be necessary to check term-times and obtain details of academic terms and vacation times for the duration of their period of study in the for which they are employed);

  4. the authenticity of any documents and whether they have been tampered with; and

  5. the reason for any difference in names (ie by checking marriage certificates, divorce decree absolutes or records).

In some circumstances you may need to ask the Home Office to check the individual's immigration employment status if they cannot provide their documents. The Home Office will then send you a 'Positive Verification Notice' if the individual has the right to work, which provides you with a 'statutory excuse' and you must keep this document for your records. Full guidance about immigration status is outside the scope of this service and you should speak to a lawyer if you have any concerns. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Q54:How does Brexit affect right to work checks?

Free movement with the has also ended, which means that and Swiss nationals coming to work in the must either have settled or pre-settled status under the Settlement Scheme, or qualify to work in the under the Government's new immigration system. Note that this does not apply to Irish citizens, whose rights to live and work in the are not affected by Brexit.

and Swiss nationals who were living and working in the before 1 January 2021 continued to benefit from their pre-Brexit rights and status until 30 June 2021, which was their deadline for applying to the Settlement Scheme for settled or pre-settled status (known as the 'grace period'). or Swiss nationals who arrive in the from 1 January 2021 must comply with the 's new immigration system and will need to obtain a work visa in advance (see Q&A 82).

From 1 July 2021, you must carry out right to work checks to ensure that all or Swiss nationals that you hire have either applied to the Settlement Scheme, or have a work visa allowing them to be employed by you under the 's new immigration system. See Q&A 51 for guidance about how to conduct a right to work check.

The Government has stated that after 30 June 2021, are not required to carry out retrospective right to work checks on their existing as they will have a statutory excuse, provided they carried out their right to work checks in accordance with Government guidance in place at the time they employed their member. If you do decide to carry out retrospective checks after 30 June 2021, you must ensure that you do not against your when doing so. In the event that, when carrying out a retrospective check, you identify that an member who you employed prior to 30 June 2021 missed the deadline for applying to the Settlement Scheme (provided they have reasonable grounds for missing it), you may be able to obtain a six month statutory excuse if you advise your member to make their application to the Settlement Scheme within 28 days, obtain their Certificate of Application from them and contact the Government's Employer Checking Service to confirm that they have applied. You must keep proper records of any action that you take in order to demonstrate your statutory excuse.

Q55:Am I allowed to check whether an applicant has a criminal record?

Yes; you can ask an applicant to get a basic check (ie limited information about any unspent convictions) for any role, or apply for it yourself with the consent of the applicant.

You can only apply for a more thorough criminal record check (a standard or enhanced check) for specific types of role. You may be required to carry out a standard or enhanced check either if you are recruiting someone to a regulated profession (eg law) or because of the nature of the job in question (eg if it involves working with children or vulnerable adults).

Q56:How do I check whether a job applicant has a criminal record?

If you need to carry out a criminal record check and are allowed to do so (see Q&A 55), you can request a check from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) . Note that it is a criminal offence to try and circumvent the by requiring a job applicant to make a for their own criminal records in order to give them to you and your business could face an unlimited fine .

See Q&A 57 for your specific obligations when requesting and handling criminal records data.

Q57:What data protection obligations do I have when handling criminal records data?

You have specific obligations when requesting and handling criminal records data about an individual:

  1. If you are going to collect information about criminal convictions, you should consider carrying out a before you start (see Data protection impact assessments for how to carry one out). A is mandatory if you will be collecting information about criminal convictions on a large scale.

  2. You should have a written policy document detailing how you ensure your compliance with law, and explaining your approach to retaining and erasing the data about individuals' criminal records, including how long you will keep it; see Staff recruitment privacy notice.

  3. Keep a written record about your use and storage of any data about criminal convictions (note some of this information may already be found in your ), including:

    1. the name and contact details of your business;

    2. what the criminal records data consists of, who it is about, why you need it and whether you got it with the consent of the applicant or because you are legally required to by the nature of the role;

    3. how long you will keep the data;

    4. a brief description of the measures you take to ensure data ;

    5. if you will the data with anyone, and if so, who and where they are based if they are outside the , together with details of the safeguards you have to ensure that the data is kept securely by them (see The rules about sharing personal data for further guidance); and

    6. whether you are using and storing it in line with your written policy (and if not, why not).

  4. You must be prepared to provide a copy of these records about your use etc of the criminal records information to the on request.

Record the results of the check (ie whether it is satisfactory or unsatisfactory, rather than the detail of any convictions), but delete all other information about criminal convictions collected in the course of the recruitment process once it has been verified through the check. You must only keep more detailed information in very exceptional circumstances where it is clearly relevant to your ongoing employment of the individual in question.

Q58:How do I check a job applicant's references?

Before you check an applicant’s references, it is good practice to obtain their permission to contact any named referees. You should make job offers conditional upon the reference checks delivering references that you consider to be satisfactory (see Q&A 39 for further guidance and Offer letter for a template offer letter).

You should send referees copies of the job description and person specification and request that they provide evidence of the applicant's ability to meet the specific requirements of the job. This is to ensure that the reference focuses on information that is relevant to the job. See Job description and Person specification for templates you can use.

Where a reference is subjective and negative, you should give the successful applicant an opportunity to comment on it before deciding whether it will impact your job offer or not.

In reality, most references received will simply confirm the job title and dates worked for the applicant as this has become standard practice among many .

See Q&A 36 for information about storing references.

Q59:At what point should I check a job applicant's references?

You should only carry out checks on job references after the selection process has been completed and an offer has been made to ensure that the selection decision is based on objective criteria. If you check references earlier, you risk being influenced by potentially subjective judgments about the applicant from their referees.

Q60:Can a job applicant ask to see the reference I have received about them?

No. Although applicants have a general right of access to that you hold about them (known as a ), you are not required to provide a copy of a reference that you have obtained about them in the course of your recruitment process.

Q61:How do I check that a job applicant has the qualifications they claim to have?

You may require an applicant to provide proof of the qualifications necessary for the job. Normally, this is done by presenting copies of certificates or other confirmations from the relevant qualification awarding bodies.

If you intend to check qualifications, you should ensure that the applicant is aware beforehand that you are going to carry out these checks and that you only keep copies if you have a lawful basis for doing so under law; for example, you may have a legitimate business need to retain records of qualifications if they are required by law for a particular role. It may be sufficient for you to simply record that the individual's qualifications have been verified, and securely destroy the additional documentation.

Q62:Can I make a job offer conditional upon the applicant undergoing health checks?

Yes, you can in some circumstances make job offers conditional on health checks delivering results that you take to be satisfactory; see Offer letter for a template conditional offer letter you can use. However, you must be very careful not to against applicants when doing so; see Q&A 67 for more information about this and see Q&A 39 for more information about making job offers.

Note that there are important considerations to bear in mind if you request health checks from job applicants, which you should consider before you embark on this process; see Q&A 63

See Q&A 64 and following for how to carry out health checks.

Q63:What data protection obligations do I have when carrying out health checks?

  1. Before collecting any information about applicants' health, whether from an existing or former healthcare provider, or a doctor, you must have carried out a (see Data protection impact assessments for how to carry one out).

  2. Any requirement for health checks at the post-offer stage should only be imposed when this is a necessary and justified measure in light of the nature of the job and you have a lawful basis for collecting this data under law.

    For example, you may have a lawful basis for medical screening because you need to assess the working capacity of the applicant as the role demands that an applicant meets certain physical criteria, eg a job as a scaffolder will require a physical ability to climb ladders and scaffolding.

  3. The health information must be collected and processed by (or under the supervision of) someone who is under an obligation of professional confidentiality (eg a doctor or occupational therapist).

  4. You should make it clear to applicants early on in the recruitment process that you will be carrying out a form of health check if they are offered a position, explaining how and why this will be done.

  5. You must ensure that you only collect as much health data as is strictly necessary and justified for the job in question.

  6. You must ensure that you securely delete health information that you obtain during the course of health checks which is not relevant to ensuring that the applicant is able to carry out the job, and any health information you are required to keep should be kept for no longer than is necessary, securely stored and kept separately from other where possible.

  7. You must maintain records of your data activities which can be provided to the if necessary, including:

    1. what the health data consists of, who it is about and why you need it;

    2. how long you will keep the health data;

    3. a brief description of the measures you take to ensure data ; and

    4. if you will the data with anyone, and if so, who and where they are based if they are outside the , together with details of the safeguards you have to ensure that the data is kept securely by them (see Sharing personal data for further guidance).

Q64:How do I go about arranging a health check for a job applicant?

First, consider who would be best placed to provide a useful medical report. If you discover that your applicant has a particular condition, it may be more appropriate to ask for a report from a specialist rather than their GP. The specialist will be better placed to advise on whether there are any reasonable adjustments you can make to accommodate the applicant.

The process for obtaining a medical report is different depending on whether:

  1. you want a medical report from one of their current or former healthcare providers (eg their GP) (for more information see Q&A 65); or

  2. you want a report from a medical practitioner unknown to the applicant following a medical examination (for more information, see Q&A 66).

Note that it is an offence to require a candidate to make a to get health records for you as a condition of giving them a job. Your business could face an unlimited fine for doing this.

Q65:What process must I follow to obtain a medical report from an applicant's current or former medical practitioner?

You must obtain the applicant's informed and freely given consent if you wish to obtain a report from their own medical practitioner as opposed to someone they don't know (for information about that situation, see Q&A 66).

The applicant must fully understand what tests you are asking for and what you will do with the information you obtain. When seeking consent, you must inform the applicant of their legal rights to withhold their consent, to inspect any report before you see it and to object to it being forwarded to your business. For a template letter you can use, see Letter to job applicant requesting consent to medical report.

If, in response to your letter requesting a medical report, the applicant informs you that they wish to have access to the report before it is given to you, you must notify the medical practitioner when you apply for the report and, at the same time (ie on the same date), notify the applicant that you have written to the medical practitioner. For a template letter you can use to request a medical report, see Letter to a job applicant's current or former medical practitioner requesting a medical report and for a template letter you can use to notify the job applicant of your application for a medical report, if they have asked to see it before you, see Letter to job applicant confirming medical report has been requested.

Q66:What process must I follow to obtain a medical report from a medical practitioner unknown to the applicant (eg a company doctor)?

If you require a medical report from a practitioner who has not previously been involved in the job applicant's healthcare, the process is much simpler than where you are obtaining a report from their own doctor (for information about that situation, see Q&A 65).

You will need to obtain the applicant's consent to any examination you might require. However, the applicant does not have any right to inspect the medical report thereafter.

For a template letter you can use to request the examination, see Letter to job applicant requesting consent to medical report.

Q67:Can I withdraw a job offer if the results of a medical check show they have a disability or long-term health condition?

Potentially, but you must be careful to ensure that you do not against an applicant on the basis of any medical information you obtain. You can avoid discriminating by ensuring that any health enquiries are directly relevant to the job in question and that reasonable adjustments are made for applicants. If you find out that your applicant has or may have a , you must not withdraw their job offer where the nature of the has no bearing on their ability to perform the role or where reasonable adjustments could be made to enable them to do it.

Example: you are recruiting for a typist for your business. You require the successful job applicant to fill out a health questionnaire. The applicant declares that they have a that hampers their mobility. They require a handrail to be fitted to stairs in your premises in order to access your office. The necessary adjustments can be completed quickly and are relatively inexpensive. The adjustments are reasonable, so you must make them to avoid discriminating against the applicant.

Q68:Can I carry out credit checks on job applicants?

In general, you should avoid vetting applicants – ie actively making your own enquiries to third parties about an applicant's background and circumstances – as it is particularly intrusive, and could potentially lead to questions as to whether you are complying with your obligations with regard to the applicant's . While there is no legal restriction on carrying out pre-employment credit checks, it is advisable only to do so where it is vital and not as a standard pre-employment condition.

You should consider whether the applicant is applying for a role where it may be necessary to know their credit history and ensure that you have a lawful basis for collecting such under law. For example, it may be appropriate to carry out credit checks on potential who will handle cash or accounts. You must be clear and transparent with applicants as early on in the recruitment process as possible about the fact that you will be carrying out credit checks on successful applicants and you must ensure that you comply with your obligations at all times when handling and storing such information (see Q&A 37).

Q69:How can I be sure a job applicant is not subject to any restrictions from their previous employment?

It is important for you to ensure that an applicant is not subject to any restrictions that may still be in place from their previous employment eg) if their with their previous has a preventing them from working for a competitor for a period of time. If you hire an applicant who is still subject to restrictions, you may face legal action from the previous ; see Q&A 70 for more information.

If you are considering offering a role to an applicant who may be subject to restrictions from their previous employment, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself:

  1. as part of the conditions of the job offer, ask the applicant to confirm that they are free from any restrictions that might affect their work for you (see Offer letter for example );

  2. confirm in your that the applicant promises they are free from any restrictions and, if you wish, that they will you against any losses you suffer if they are wrong (see Employment contract for example ); and

  3. if you are in any doubt, as part of the conditions of the job offer, you can ask to see the applicant's previous and check for yourself whether any restrictions apply (you may require legal advice on the extent of restrictions). For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

If you want to see the previous , you should get the applicant's specific consent to you obtaining it (in writing is best practice), unless they are able to provide you with a copy themselves.

Q70:Can I be held responsible if a job applicant is subject to restrictions from their previous employment and I hire them anyway?

Yes, potentially.

If by hiring an applicant they will their restrictions, there is a possibility that an could be granted to restrain you from doing so.

You could also be liable to pay if, for example, you knew about the restrictions and hired the anyway even if you knew that this would cause them to their contract, or if you deliberately did not ask about restrictions to avoid encountering a problem. The former may choose to sue you for the 's rather than the themselves (or sue you jointly); they may choose to do this if you have 'deeper pockets' than the and are more likely to be able to pay any granted by a court.

If you are concerned that by hiring a job applicant they will with their former , consider putting their hire on hold. If in any doubt, seek legal advice on the extent of the restrictions to provide you with confirmation as to whether the applicant will or will not them. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Q71:Can I check a job applicant's social media or online profiles during the recruitment process?

You must exercise caution in reviewing applicants' social media or online profiles during your recruitment process. It is not enough that the information is freely available online; you must have a lawful basis for reviewing it. Most commonly in a recruitment context, this will be when looking at social media presence is necessary in order to assess specific risks about an individual's suitability for a specific function, provided that their interests do not override yours.

You should usually carry out a () before starting to glean information from social media about candidates, as it presents a high risk to their privacy rights. As part of it, consider whether your actions are proportionate and justified in all the circumstances. An important will be whether the online account relates to business or private purposes, as in many cases social media profiles will not be related to an individual's professional life. For example, while you may be justified in reviewing and collecting data from a LinkedIn profile, reviewing a candidate's Facebook or Instagram feed is much less likely to be justifiable. See Data protection impact assessments for how to carry out a .

Consider also putting in place a clear policy covering the use of social media during your recruitment processes and ensure that any involved in recruitment are aware of what they can and cannot review on social media or online. Specifically, you should prohibit your recruitment from requiring applicants to provide them with access to their profiles.

If you decide you are justified in accessing a candidate's social media or online profile, you must comply with your general obligations regarding any information you glean. This includes ensuring that the information you collect is necessary for your assessment of the candidates' suitability and that you have been transparent with them about the fact that you will be reviewing publicly available sources of information (see Q&A 9 for how to communicate this information to applicants). Bear in mind that even if you are justified in reviewing an applicant's social media profile, you are also likely to come across other personal (and potentially sensitive) data that is irrelevant to the job you are recruiting for and for which you do not have a lawful reason to access. Try to minimise this wherever possible.

Setting up personnel systems
Q72:What do I need to do before I hire my first staff?

Before you take on your first , there are a number of steps that you must take in order to comply with your basic legal responsibilities as an . The consequences of failing to prepare properly vary depending on the legal obligation; at the very least, you risk a disorganised start and a poor first impression of your business on your new . Failures in relation to some of your obligations (eg health and safety, obtaining proper insurance) can result in convictions, fines and even prison sentences if the failure is serious enough.

The basic steps you must take include:

  1. registering with as an (see Q&A 73);

  2. writing disciplinary and procedures (which can be included as part of your if you choose to have one) (see HR policies for guidance and Staff handbook and policies for templates you can use);

  3. setting up a payroll system before the first payday (see Process for paying staff);

  4. setting up a before your arrive (see Choosing and setting up a staff pension scheme);

  5. obtaining a minimum of £5 million cover (see Employers' liability insurance);

  6. ensuring your premises comply with health and safety and that you have suitable policies and procedures in place to govern it (see Q&A 78); and

  7. making sure you have appropriate systems and procedures in place for dealing with the of candidates, before you begin the recruitment process (see Q&A 79).

Additional steps that are not legally obligatory but will benefit your business include:

  1. putting together a to your policies and procedures for matters from dress code to expenses (see Staff handbook); and

  2. assigning (and training, if necessary) a specific person or people to deal with HR issues (see Q&A 74).

Q73:How do I register as an employer with HMRC?

You must register with as an before the first payday of your first comes around. Note that this rule applies even if you only employ yourself, for example as the of a .

You cannot register more than two months before you start paying people, but note that the registration process can take up to two weeks to complete, so be sure to start your application in good time. You can set up an online account with and register as an (or check if you need to register as an ) through the government website.

Once you have registered with , you will be sent, among other things, an Reference Number (also known as your ERN or reference). Your ERN is very important and you will need to ensure you have it saved, as you will need it to identify your business to . will send you your ERN with your welcome pack after you have registered and it usually appears at the top of correspondence from .

For full details of how to set up payroll, see Process for paying staff.

Q74:Who should be responsible for HR issues in my business?

It is best to decide who will be responsible for HR before you hire your first member(s). Who this should be will depend on the size of your business and your business/ needs. Inevitably, in the early stages of many start-ups, or in the case of a small business you, or perhaps another senior member or , will be responsible for any HR matters. Bigger businesses will typically have a dedicated person or team to deal with HR issues.

Note that you have a duty to inform your and within two months of their start date who is responsible for dealing with disciplinary matters and , whether it is you as the designated HR person, a particular manager, or someone else. You must give this information in writing (usually in their contract) and must also explain applicable procedures. For detailed guidance on dealing with and disciplinary proceedings, see Grievances and disciplinary procedure).

Note that you will need to allocate a specific person to deal with health and safety issues (see Q&A 78), which need not be the person responsible for HR issues.

Q75:Does the person dealing with HR in my business need any training?

Issues that will typically be dealt with by the person, or team, responsible for HR include:

  1. payroll and holidays;

  2. sickness;

  3. hiring and dismissing ;

  4. providing support in relation to or disciplinary matters; and

  5. explaining and implementing policies.

Whoever oversees HR matters will, at the very least, need a basic understanding of employment law and will need to keep on top of legal developments. Training in HR and employment issues is available from several providers, including and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Q76:What personnel systems do I need to set up before I employ staff?

When preparing to recruit , you must ensure you have suitable systems in place to deal with:

  1. payroll (see Process for paying staff and following);

  2. pension provision (see Choosing and setting up a staff pension scheme);

  3. health and safety (see Q&A 78 and following); and

  4. (see Q&A 79).

It is also important to know how you will manage common issues and track information regarding your as they progress through your business from recruitment all the way to leaving your organisation; see Q&A 77 for information.

Q77:What records about my staff will I need to keep?

You should keep the following records/information about your (there are a range of computerised record-keeping systems which you can use to do this). More detailed information about this can be found in Records and staff data.

  1. Personal information

    This can include details such as name, address, emergency contact, date of birth, education details, tax code, details and relevant .

  2. Employment history

    Details of each member's employment history within your organisation such as start date, period, promotions, present job title and end date if the employment is temporary.

  3. Terms and conditions

    You should retain a signed copy of each member's , along with any records or letters confirming any changes. See Employment contracts for further information on employment contracts and making changes.

    Current and historic versions of your if you have one should also be retained; see Staff handbook for information about this.

  4. Absences

    You must retain details of lateness, sickness (including details of any ), or any other authorised or unauthorised absence, eg annual holiday, maternity, paternity, adoption or , time off to care for a dependent, including etc. See Dealing with annual leave, Dealing with sickness absence, Maternity leave and pay, Adoption leave and pay, Paternity leave and pay, Shared parental leave and pay, Bereavement leave and Time off for appointments, caring and public duties.

  5. Hours worked

    Track what hours your are actually working (including overtime) to ensure you comply with your legal obligations to ensure your do not work more than the 48 hour maximum working week (unless they have opted out of this legal requirement) and that they are receiving the correct breaks and rest periods. For further information, see Rules about working hours.

  6. Accidents and illnesses

    You are required to record the detail of accidents connected with work. Certain accidents must be reported to relevant authorities for health and safety purposes, but it is a good idea to record any level of accident including the administration of first aid (see Keeping records about accidents, illnesses and near misses for further information and Accident book - injuries, Accident book - illness and Accident book - near misses for template accident books).

  7. Training and development

    Record details of any training or further education undertaken by , including when they join the .

  8. Disciplinary and Proceedings

    You should have systems in place to retain details of any disciplinary actions taken against your or brought by (see Handling grievances and Taking disciplinary action). You must also have a disciplinary procedure and a procedure in place which you must give to your ; the template Staff handbook and policies includes template and disciplinary policies, which you can choose to generate either on their own or as part of a full .

  9. Recruitment and induction

    You should retain details of recruitment exercises, including advertisements, job descriptions and person specifications (see Q&A 7 and following). You should also retain details of what training and induction exercises members receive upon joining your .

  10. Termination

    You should retain copy correspondence and internal records of details relating to departures from your , including resignation letters, retirements or details of dismissal proceedings or settlements, or exercises; see Staff dismissals and redundancy and Staff resignations and retirement.

Note that for with over 250 members, it is a legal requirement to report on the gender pay gap within its workforce every 12 months. Gender pay gap reporting is outside the scope of this service. If you have over 250 members you should seek legal advice on how to comply with this requirement. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service.

Health and safety and data protection obligations for employers
Q78:What health and safety matters do I need to consider before taking on my first staff?

You have obligations to protect the health, safety and welfare of your members. There is a significant amount of action you must take before new members arrive and during the first few days of their employment to comply with health and safety law. Failure to do so could result in avoidable illness or injuries to your or even the prosecution of your and/or any responsible or managers for the failures. Punishment can include a fine or even up to two years in prison if the failures are very serious.

In summary, comply with the following legal requirements before the arrival of new :

  1. You must have which covers your in the event of any work-related accidents or illnesses (see Employers' liability insurance).

  2. You must have a health and safety policy (see Writing a health and safety policy and Staff handbook and policies for a template policy).

  3. You must make sure your workplace and equipment complies with health and safety laws (see Providing a safe and healthy workplace);

  4. You must perform an initial health and safety for your office (see When to do a general risk assessment for guidance and General risk assessment for an office for a template you can use) and a fire (see Doing a fire safety risk assessment for guidance and Fire safety risk assessment for a template you can use).

  5. You must train appropriately in health and safety matters by:

    1. nominating a member (or a if there are no other members) to be in charge of health and safety issues;

    2. establishing an emergency evacuation plan;

    3. establishing fire-safety procedures, including use of fire extinguishers and other firefighting equipment;

    4. establishing adequate first-aid procedures; and

    5. providing your with general information about health and safety risks and precautions in the workplace.

    See Health and safety training for staff for more detail.

  6. You must have good housekeeping procedures in place to ensure that floors are kept clear of anything that might cause a person to slip, trip or fall; see Slips and trips.

Note that if you operate within an industry with specific needs like construction, or if your will be engaging in high-risk work such as , with heavy machinery or dangerous substances, there may be additional steps you need to take to address health and safety matters.

Q79:What do I need to know about data protection before I take on any new staff?

When you take on new you will be collecting and using information about potential candidates from the beginning of the recruitment process onwards (eg when you collect CVs and application forms, keep contact details on file, make notes during an interview or discuss prospective members by email). Your business has obligations that must be observed when dealing with this information.

Failure to comply with law can have serious financial and reputational consequences for your business, including fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of your global annual , whichever is higher in the most serious cases. You must be compliant from the moment you begin gathering information about candidates.

For detailed information on your obligations when any , see Data protection obligations.

The key points to be aware of are as follows:

  1. Inform new about your data policy

    You must provide certain information to new including what information you will collect about them, why, and how you will use and store it. It is common to set out most of this information in your . The template Staff handbook and policies includes a template for your , which you can choose to generate either on its own or as part of a full . See Staff recruitment privacy notice for a you can make available to job applicants.

  2. Take care before collecting such as health or information

    carries stricter rules about what you can collect and how you can use it. See When to use personal data for the circumstances in which you may gather, store or use .

  3. Only collect necessary information about new

    You must only collect information about that is relevant and necessary for your dealings with them. For further information on the data you may collect about your , see Records and staff data.

  4. Securely delete information that you no longer need

    You must not keep information about your for longer than is necessary, and as a general rule you must try to keep it for the least amount of time possible, securely deleting or disposing of it promptly when you no longer need it. See Data retention for more information about storing .

  5. Train new on their obligations if necessary

    Consider training requirements for any new . The extent of training you will need to give will depend entirely on the role of each member and their access to information about others. For example, HR will be dealing regularly with personal information about your so will need to be familiar with your and any relevant policies.

  6. Pay an annual fee to the

    You will need to pay a fee to the , the amount of which is dependent on the number of you have or your ; for more information on this requirement see ICO registration and fees.

Hiring staff after Brexit
Q80:Does Brexit affect the rights that staff members are entitled to?

No, generally employment rights in the have not been affected by Brexit. The - Trade and (the 'Brexit Deal') which came into force on 1 January 2021 commits the and the to common employment standards, including in relation to fair working conditions and fundamental rights at work. Businesses should therefore continue to ensure that their members' rights are protected, as set out in this chapter, unless indicated otherwise.

Note that the key change that should be aware of relates to employing citizens from 1 January 2021; see Q&A 82 for further guidance.

Q81:How does Brexit affect my existing staff members from EU countries?

Any hired by your business prior to the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020 are permitted to continue living and working in the provided they applied to the EU Settlement Scheme for settled or pre-settled status before 30 June 2021 (referred to as the '-Exit grace period'). Note that this does not apply to Irish citizens, whose rights to live and work in the is not affected by Brexit.

Provided you carried out right to work checks in accordance with Government guidance in place at the time you employed your , you are not required to carry out retrospective right to work checks on your existing after 30 June 2021 as you will have a statutory excuse.

If you employ frontier then, unless they are British or Irish citizens, they will need either a Frontier permit or a visa to continue working in the following Brexit. A frontier is an or Swiss national who lives outside the (and so does not have settled or pre-settled status under the Settlement Scheme) but who comes to the to work. Frontier permits are only available to individuals who began working in the on or before 31 December 2020 and are required for entry into the for work on or after 1 July 2021; for more information see the Government's guidance. Frontier who started working in the on or after 1 January 2021 will need to apply for a visa.

See Q&A 82 for information about how Brexit affects your ability to hire new members from 1 January 2021.

Q82:Does Brexit affect my ability to hire staff members from EU countries?

It depends.

Free movement with the ended on 31 December 2020. This means that if you want to recruit members from countries from 1 January 2021, you must be aware of the following:

  1. or Swiss nationals already lawfully residing in the on or before 31 December 2020 had until 30 June 2021 to apply for settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. If their application was successful, they can continue living and working in the after 30 June 2021 and your ability to hire such individuals will not be affected. Remember that you must conduct right to work checks on anyone you intend to hire before they start work (see Q&A 48).

  2. From 1 January 2021, a new immigration system applies to and Swiss nationals who were not already residing in the prior to that date, and they will need to obtain a working visa before moving here. Working visas will only be available to individuals who can show they have a job offer from an approved sponsor. This means that if you plan on hiring new members who do not have settled or pre-settled status (see paragraph (a) above), you will need to become an approved sponsor, if you are not one already. Immigration guidance is outside the scope of this service. It is recommended that you seek independent legal advice if you wish to explore the possibility of sponsorship. For access to a specialist lawyer in a few simple steps, you can use our Ask a Lawyer service. Remember that you must conduct right to work checks on anyone you intend to hire before they start work (see Q&A 48).

  3. The rights of Irish citizens to live and work in the is not affected by Brexit.

Bear in mind that now that free movement has ended, if you employ nationals to work for you in the or you will be recruiting them to do so, they will need to abide by any immigration rules in the relevant country and may need to apply for a work permit or visa. If you require your members to drive in countries, they may need an International Driving Permit to continue to do so. Full coverage of immigration and licence requirements is outside the scope of this service.