Ban on pre-employment health checks 


There is a ban on pre-employment questions to job applicants about their health, including whether they have a disability and their previous sickness absence record, before they are offered a role (section 60, EA 10). 


There are exceptions. In particular:


• asking about disability before an interview to organise reasonable adjustments at the interview is allowed;


• asking whether an applicant can carry out a function intrinsic to the role once reasonable adjustments have been made is allowed; and


• anonymised questions for diversity monitoring are allowed, although the results should not be available to the person doing the selecting. 


In general, this means that an employer must not ask about a job applicant’s health before offering employment, on either a conditional or an unconditional basis. The ban extends to third parties such as assessment centres, recruitment agencies and referees. Once a job offer has been made, it is no longer unlawful to ask questions about health, but an employer who asks health-related questions after making an offer, for example, using a health questionnaire, and then withdraws that offer when the answers reveal a disability, risks a claim for disability discrimination. For a recent example, see Pnaiser v NHS England [2015] UKEAT 0137/15.


The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the ban. There is statutory guidance on the EHRC website (see also Chapter 7: Discrimination).