An employer must provide to each employee a statement of the basic terms of his contract. (This is not a right to a written contract)

The note must:

• cover any disciplinary rules which apply to the employee;
• specify, by description (for example job title) or by name, the person to whom the employee can apply and the manner in which an application should be made if he or she is dissatisfied with any disciplinary decision relating to him or her, or for the purpose of seeking redress of any grievance relating to his or her employment; and
• cover any further steps which follow from the making of such an application.

Employers with fewer than twenty employees, however, need give only the name of the person to whom the employee can apply for the purpose of seeking redress of any grievance relating to his or her employment and the manner in which such an application should be made.

These requirements do not apply to rules, disciplinary decisions, grievances and procedures relating to health or safety at work.

The note must also state, in every case, whether or not a contracting-out certificate under the Pensions Schemes Act 1993 is in force for the employment in question.

Which of the required particulars may be given by reference to some other document, rather than in the written statement itself?

Most of the required particulars must be set out in the written statement itself. There are however a number of exceptions.

Particulars of:

• entitlement to sick leave, including any entitlement to sick pay;
• pensions and pension schemes;
• disciplinary rules; and
• any further steps which follow from the making of an application under the employer's disciplinary or grievance procedures;
• may be given by reference to some other document which the employee has reasonable opportunities of reading in the course of his or her employment or which is made reasonably accessible to him or her in some other way. It is for individual employers to make suitable arrangements to ensure that this requirement is complied with should they choose to make reference to some other document.

In addition, particulars of the entitlement of employer and employee to notice of termination may be given by reference to the provisions of the relevant legislation or to those of any relevant collective agreement which the employee has reasonable opportunities of reading in the course of his or her employment or which is made reasonably accessible to him or her in some other way.

When must the written statement be given?

• All the required particulars must be given within two months of the date when the employee's employment begins. In the case of an employee who leaves the UK within two months of the beginning of his or her employment to work abroad for a period of more than one month, the required particulars must be given to him or her before he or she leaves. It is not necessary, however, for all the information to be given at the same time. It can instead be given in separate documents or instalments if this is more convenient, provided that certain particulars are collected together in one single instalment, referred to in the legislation as the 'principal statement'.
• The particulars which must be included in the principal statement are:
  the names of the employer and the employee;

(If an employee whose employment began before 30 November 1993 requests a statement meeting the requirements described in this booklet - see Who is entitled to receive a written statement? - it must be provided within two months of when the request is made.)