Written statement of employment particulars

Employees are entitled to receive a statement of their employment particulars within two months of starting work. This sets out your main employment terms, including the job description, pay, hours of work and any disciplinary or grievance procedures your employer has.

What is a written statement of employment particulars?

If you are an employee who has been employed for longer than one month, you should receive a ‘written statement of employment particulars’. Your employer has a duty to give you this within two months of you starting work. It still applies even if you will only be working for them for two months.

The statement sets out in writing some of your main employment terms, known as the 'principle statement'. It will not necessarily cover all of your employment terms and may cover only the ones your employer has a duty to include.

Principal statement

Your employer must provide you with some of your employment details in one single document. This is known as the 'principal statement' and must include:

The letter offering you the job, or your employment contract, could be your principal statement or full written statement. There is no need for your employer to give you a separate written statement if everything is covered in either of these two documents.

Your employer can give you photocopies from your staff handbook or other documents that contain the details of your employment. If they do this you should still receive a written statement telling you what detail the photocopies contain.

If your employer does not offer one of the terms that must be set out in the written statement (such as a pension scheme), they must say that it is not offered in your written statement. Your employer cannot just leave it out.

Information included in other workplace documents

Most of the required employment details must be set out in the written statement itself. However, there are a number of exceptions:

Disciplinary and grievance procedures

Your written statement of employment particulars must also include any disciplinary rules, and any disciplinary or dismissal procedures that your employer has. It should also cover who you can apply to (either by name or description, for example job title) if you:

Working abroad

If you are normally employed in the UK but you will have to work abroad for the same employer for one month or more, your statement must also cover:

What does a written statement look like?

An interactive tool is available on the businesslink website to help your employer create a written statement. This could give you an idea of what your written statement may look like.

What to do if you have a problem

If you have a problem, you should first try to sort out it out with your employer. You could contact the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (Acas) for help, or visit the employment useful contacts section for other contacts.

If you have an employee representative, such as a trade union official, they may be able to help. If you cannot resolve the problem with your employer you may be able to make a claim to an Employment Tribunal (Industrial Tribunal in Northern Ireland).

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