The Government has introduced an amendment into the Equality Bill which will ban employers from asking job applicants about their medical history prior to inviting them to interview. 

The amendment would stop employers from asking job candidates about their health until after a job offer has been made.

Lord Hunt of Wirral, a Conservative peer, said: “Employers should not be permitted to make use of pre-employment health-related questions which are not directly relevant to the candidate’s ability, in particular for the job for which they have applied.”

Under the Disability Discrimination Act, employees can choose to disclose a condition or disability so that organisations can make reasonable adjustments. The new clause in the Equality Bill would mean they were no longer forced to disclose.

According to law firm Eversheds, employers would not be prevented from checking that a prospective employee was able to do the job. If the law is passed employers are advised to refrain from asking about a candidate’s health until the later stages of a recruitment exercise. As an exception, it would still be acceptable to ask an applicant if there were any adjustments that should be made to the recruitment process itself to compensate for the effects of a medical condition.” [1]

Further amendments to be debated in the House of Lords as the Bill’s committee stage continues on 25 January include:

• An amendment tabled by Lord Lester to remove default retirement age regulations from the Bill where employees can be forced to retire at 65 or later.
• An ‘age audit’ amendment promoted by TAEN to lay a duty on public and private sector employers with more than 250 employees to annually publish details of the age profiles of their workforces.

This adds to the provisions for new reporting requirements for employers relating to gender pay gap, disability and race.

[1] Eversheds, HR Director (07/12/09)