How to report questions about your health or disability before you are offered a job

Advice and Guidance

Who is this page for?

  • People applying for jobs
  • Employees

Which countries is it relevant to?

    • Great Britain flag icon

      Great Britain

Employers are not usually allowed to ask questions about your health or disability before you are offered a job. These are often called ‘pre-employment health questions’. If you are asked this type of question, you can report it to us.

What are pre-employment health questions?

Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 makes it generally unlawful for you to be asked questions about your health or disability before you are offered a job (on a conditional or unconditional basis) or before you have been placed into a pool of successful candidates to be offered a job when a position becomes available.

This is to prevent information about your disability or health being used to reject your job application without first giving you the opportunity to show that you have the skills to do the job.

There are some exceptions to this rule. You should contact the Equality Advisory Support Service (EASS) for information and advice on when the rule does not apply.

How do I report them?

If you have been asked a question about your health or disability when applying for a job we are interested in hearing about it.

We may take the matter up generally with the employer but will not disclose any of your details to them.

We will not be able to advise you on any individual claim you may wish to bring against the employer. You should contact the Equality Advisory Support Service (EASS) directly if you need further advice or support.

Please complete the form through the link below if you are reporting a pre-employment health question or questionnaire. If you have a copy of the job application form containing the health questions you can upload it or cut and paste it into the form.

This applies only to applications in England, Scotland or Wales.

Complete the reporting form

Last updated: 21 Nov 2019

Further information

If you think you might have been treated unfairly and want further advice, you can contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service.

Phone: 0808 800 0082

You can email using the contact form on the EASS website.

Also available through the website are BSL interpretation, web chat services and a contact us form.

Post:
FREEPOST
EASS HELPLINE
FPN6521

Opening hours:

9am to 7pm Monday to Friday
10am to 2pm Saturday
closed on Sundays and Bank Holidays

Alternatively, you can visit our advice and guidance page.