Pre-employment health assessments

Employers have both a common law duty as well as an implicit duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure that prospective employees are:

• Fit for their proposed employment.


• Aware of the potential risks to their health as a result of such employment.

Undertaking an appropriate pre-employment or pre-placement assessment goes a long way to satisfying such a duty.

Integral to this is a documented recruitment process, of which one component is the pre-employment / pre-placement policy.

Due to increasing legal pressure every opinion on "fitness to work":

• Requires a competent appraisal of the relevant factors such as specific risk based fitness standards. Blanket rejection on the basis of medical criteria alone should be avoided as each case should be assessed on its own merits.


• Ensures compliance under common law and legislation including The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Data protection Act (DPA) 1998 and Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998.

What are the aims and outcomes of the assessment?

What can and cannot be achieved?

What is the procedure and cost of pre-employment health assessments?