Writing a compliant job offer in the United Kingdom
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
A compliant job offer in the UK must confirm pay, hours, holiday, and key statutory terms before the employee's first day. Getting it right from the outset protects both parties and reduces the risk of disputes later.
What a job offer letter must cover
A job offer letter and the written statement of employment particulars (often called a contract) are separate documents, but they work together. Under Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, you must give a written statement of particulars on or before day one. The offer letter itself has no strict statutory form, but it should be consistent with what will appear in the contract.
At a minimum, your offer letter should state:
- The job title and a brief description of duties
- The start date
- Salary or hourly rate
- Hours of work
- Whether the role is permanent, fixed-term, or casual
- The workplace location
- Any conditions attached to the offer (see below)
Step one: state pay accurately
Pay is the detail candidates scrutinise most closely, so precision matters. Set out the gross annual salary or hourly rate. Where relevant, note the pay frequency (weekly, monthly) and the payment method.
At this stage it is also useful to flag how income tax and National Insurance will be deducted. Employees receive a personal allowance of £12,570 before income tax applies. Above that, basic-rate tax is 20%, the higher rate is 40%, and the additional rate is 45%. On the employer side, you will pay Class 1 employer National Insurance at 13.8% on earnings above the secondary threshold (category A employees). Employees pay 8% up to the upper earnings limit, then 2% above it. You do not need to reproduce all of this in the offer letter, but referencing that deductions will be made through PAYE and Real Time Information (RTI) sets expectations.
If the role is eligible for auto-enrolment, note that the employee will be enrolled into the workplace pension scheme. The minimum contributions are 3% from you and 5% from the employee on qualifying earnings.
Step two: set out hours and holiday
State the contracted hours clearly, including whether overtime is obligatory or voluntary and how it is paid. For holiday, the statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks per year — equivalent to 28 days including bank holidays for someone working a standard five-day week. You can offer more, but you cannot offer less. State the holiday year (for example, 1 January to 31 December) and the accrual basis during any part-year.
Step three: confirm conditional offers and pre-employment checks
Most offers are conditional. Common conditions include:
- Receipt of satisfactory references
- Proof of the right to work in the UK (a legal requirement under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006)
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check where relevant to the role
- Proof of qualifications
List every condition explicitly. If a condition is not met, you want a clear contractual basis for withdrawing the offer without ambiguity.
Step four: address statutory rights from day one
Since the Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025, several rights apply from the first day of employment.
Employees have the right to request flexible working from day one — note this is a right to make a formal request, not a right to have it granted. Day-one entitlement to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) with no waiting days takes effect from April 2026, replacing the previous three-day wait. Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave also carry day-one entitlement.
Your offer letter should not overstate these rights, but it should be consistent with them. In particular, do not include wording that implies an employee must wait before accessing SSP from April 2026 onwards.
On unfair dismissal: there is no day-one right to claim unfair dismissal. The qualifying period remains two years. For dismissals on or after 1 January 2027, that period reduces to six months. There is also no statutory probation period — probation is a contractual mechanism only. If you use a probationary period, define its length, any review process, and the notice terms that apply during it. Keep those notice terms compliant with the statutory minimum.
Step five: include the right notices and next steps
Close the offer letter with:
- The deadline for the candidate to accept (typically five to ten working days)
- Instructions for returning a signed copy
- Confirmation that the full written statement of particulars will follow before or on the start date
- The name and contact details of the person handling queries
Keep a copy of every signed offer letter on the employee's personnel file. HMRC requires payroll records to be retained for at least three years after the end of the tax year they relate to, and employment records should be kept for the duration of employment and beyond to manage any future tribunal risk.
A well-constructed offer letter takes little time to produce and can prevent significant difficulties — from pay disputes to immigration penalties — later in the employment relationship.
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