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Legislation

Do you know and understand the law as it relates to PES? We have a pretty good working knowledge that we can bring to the process of screening to ensure that you avoid the pitfalls.

We also have a retained specialist lawyer and an industry consultant to assist in this area.

We incorporate the legal requirements into our process of PES to protect you and your business.

The following is a selection of the laws you need to consider:

Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 gives individuals the right to respect for their private and family life, their home and their correspondence - affects what you can ask of an applicant.

Across the EU Human Rights are controlled by the Council of Europe's Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms - relevant when the applicant is from an EU country.

In the UK the Data Protection Act 1998 lays down procedures for PES that employers should follow. In brief, they cover:

  1. Telling the applicant the process their application will go through.
  2. That the actual checks are justified by its relevance to the position offered.
  3. Their rights to comment on any adverse information found.
  4. Did you know the Act only allows employers to keep the information obtained by vetting for six months?

So what do you need to build into your PES programme so as not to fall foul of this tricky piece of legislation?

EU Directive on Data Protection prohibits the transfer of personal data out of the EU to a country that does not satisfy EU 'adequacy standards' for privacy protection. One such country is the USA although there is now a Safe Harbour framework in place to allow such transfers under certain conditions - where is your data going?

Introduced in April 2004 was The Conduct on Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations which requires agencies to screen candidates adequately, giving employers information on why they might be unsuitable.

Recent Case Law has changed the role of reference taking. Examples can be found in:

  1. - Spring v Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance
  2. - Cox v Sun Alliance
  3. - Bartholomews v London Borough of Hackney

The result is that multi nationals are only providing basic information about person's previous employment with them - how should you deal with this?

The Financial Services & Market Act 2000 require individuals working in controlled functions such as senior customer-facing roles to be 'fit and proper' persons, meeting honesty, competence and financial soundness criteria. This is also carried over into the requirements of The Financial Services Authority (FSA).

S8 of the Asylum & Immigration Act 1996 makes it unlawful for employers to employ anyone without permission to work in the UK - do you know what, if anything, you can do about this to protect you business from being raided and prosecuted?

The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, Recommendation 15a, deals with adequate screening procedures to ensure high standards when employing staff.

The above are just a few of the legal hurdles you need to overcome when dealing with PES. Does your current service provider have the necessary knowledge levels to help you?