Blog/Guides
Written statement of employment particulars: what UK employers must give on day one
ERA 1996 s.1 gives every worker — not just employees — a written statement of particulars no later than the day employment begins. What must be in the single day-one document, the narrow set of particulars that may follow within two months, and the things employers get wrong most often.
The written statement of employment particulars is not the employment contract, and treating the two as the same document is where most UK onboarding compliance goes wrong. ERA 1996 s.1 imposes a free-standing statutory duty with its own list, its own deadline and its own single-document requirement — and it applies to every worker, from the first day. This guide sets out what has to be in it, what may follow later, and where the list quietly bites.
TL;DR
- Every worker, not only every employee, must be given a written statement of particulars (s.1(1)).
- The s.1(3) and s.1(4) particulars must be in a single document, given not later than the beginning of the employment (s.1(2)) — there is no grace period.
- Only s.1(4)(d)(iii), (j), (l) and the s.3 note may be given in instalments, and even those must land within two months (s.2(4)).
- The holiday particular must be “sufficient to enable the worker’s entitlement … to be precisely calculated” (s.1(4)(d)(i)) — a bare “28 days” fails that test for an irregular-hours worker.
- Any probationary period must be stated with its conditions and duration (s.1(4)(ga)), on a definition set out at s.1(6).
- The s.1(4) particulars must be accurate as at a specified date not more than seven days before the statement is given (s.1(4)).
Who has to be given a written statement, and by when?
Section 1(1) is one sentence and settles the population: “Where a worker begins employment with an employer, the employer shall give to the worker a written statement of particulars of employment.”
The noun is worker. That is broader than “employee”, and it sweeps in casual, zero-hours and other non-employee working arrangements on identical timing. The only place s.1 still distinguishes an employee is s.1(3)(c), which requires the date on which continuous employment began “in the case of a statement given to an employee”.
The deadline is in s.1(2): “Subject to sections 2(2) to (4)— (a) the particulars required by subsections (3) and (4) must be included in a single document; and (b) the statement must be given not later than the beginning of the employment.”
Two obligations, not one. Single document, and day one. Neither is satisfied by a well-organised onboarding pack that lands in week two.
What must be in the single day-one document?
Section 1(3) sets out the identifying particulars. Section 1(4) sets out the substantive terms, and opens with a timing qualifier worth noticing: the particulars must be given “as at a specified date not more than seven days before the statement … is given”.
| Particular | Limb | When |
|---|---|---|
| Names of the employer and the worker; the date employment began; for an employee, the date continuous employment began | s.1(3)(a)–(c) | Day one |
| Scale or rate of remuneration, or the method of calculating it; the intervals at which it is paid | s.1(4)(a)–(b) | Day one |
| Hours of work: normal working hours, the days of the week the worker is required to work, and whether hours or days may vary and how | s.1(4)(c) | Day one |
| Holidays, including public holidays, and holiday pay — “sufficient to enable the worker’s entitlement … to be precisely calculated” | s.1(4)(d)(i) | Day one |
| Incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay; any other paid leave | s.1(4)(d)(ii), (iia) | Day one |
| Any other benefits provided by the employer not falling within another paragraph | s.1(4)(da) | Day one |
| Notice the worker is obliged to give and entitled to receive; job title or a brief description of the work | s.1(4)(e)–(f) | Day one |
| Where the employment is not intended to be permanent, the expected period or the fixed-term end date | s.1(4)(g) | Day one |
| Any probationary period, including any conditions and its duration | s.1(4)(ga), defined at s.1(6) | Day one |
| Place of work, or an indication of working at various places, plus the employer’s address | s.1(4)(h) | Day one |
| Work outside the United Kingdom for more than one month: period, currency, additional remuneration and benefits, and terms on returning | s.1(4)(k) | Day one |
| Training the employer requires the worker to complete, including any the employer will not bear the cost of | s.1(4)(m)–(n) | Day one |
| Pensions and pension schemes; collective agreements directly affecting the terms; any training entitlement provided by the employer; the s.3 note | s.1(4)(d)(iii), (j), (l) via s.2(4) | May be given in instalments, within two months |
One narrow carve-out: s.1(5) disapplies the pensions particular at s.1(4)(d)(iii) for workers of a body or authority whose pension rights depend on a statutory scheme where that body is already required to give new workers pension information.
Which particulars can you give within two months instead?
Four things, and no more. Section 2(4) provides that a statement, “insofar as it relates to the particulars required by section 1(4)(d)(iii), (j) and (l) and the note required by section 3— (a) may be given in instalments; and (b) must be given not later than two months after the beginning of the employment, even where the employment ends before that date.”
That is pensions and pension schemes, collective agreements, the employer-provided training entitlement, and the s.3 note on disciplinary and grievance procedures. The closing words matter for short hires: a worker who leaves in week three is still owed the instalment.
Notice what is not on the list. Overseas work under s.1(4)(k) is a day-one particular even though it reads like something you would confirm later. So are the employer-required training limbs at s.1(4)(m) and (n), which sit immediately after the instalment-eligible s.1(4)(l) and are routinely lumped in with it.
What must the statement say about holiday and sick pay?
This is where the day-one statement stops being a form-filling exercise and starts depending on the rest of your compliance position.
The holiday particular at s.1(4)(d)(i) requires the particulars given to be “sufficient to enable the worker’s entitlement, including any entitlement to accrued holiday pay on the termination of employment, to be precisely calculated”. For a worker on a fixed five-day pattern, stating the entitlement and the leave year gets you there. For an irregular-hours or part-year worker, it does not: their entitlement accrues under WTR reg 15B at a percentage of hours worked in each pay period, and their pay is determined under reg 16. A flat number of days is not precisely calculable for that population — the statement has to describe the mechanism. The guide to holiday entitlement and holiday pay for irregular-hours workers sets out what that mechanism actually is.
The sick-pay particular at s.1(4)(d)(ii) covers “incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provision for sick pay”. Statutory sick pay was reformed on 6 April 2026 — waiting days abolished by ERA 2025 s.10 and the lower earnings limit removed by s.11(3) — so a template clause describing three waiting days and an earnings threshold now states a repealed regime to every new starter. See what employers now have to pay under the reformed SSP rules for the current position.
What must the statement say about a probationary period?
If there is one, it must be stated in the day-one document, with both its conditions and its duration. Section 1(4)(ga) requires particulars of “any probationary period, including any conditions and its duration”, and it is not on the s.2(4) instalment list.
“Conditions” is doing work there. A statement that says “six months’ probation” gives the duration and nothing else. What the worker is assessed against, and what happens at the end, are conditions.
Section 1(6) defines the term narrowly: “a temporary period specified in the contract of employment or other worker’s contract between a worker and an employer that— (a) commences at the beginning of the employment, and (b) is intended to enable the employer to assess the worker’s suitability for the employment.” A development or review period that starts three months in is not a probationary period within s.1(6), whatever it is called internally.
What do employers most often get wrong about the written statement?
- Thinking the right is limited to employees. Section 1(1) says worker. Casual and zero-hours populations are in scope on the same day-one timing.
- Assuming a grace period. Section 1(2)(b) requires the statement not later than the beginning of the employment. Two months is the exception for four particulars, not the rule for the document.
- Thinking everything can be delivered in instalments. Only s.1(4)(d)(iii), (j), (l) and the s.3 note (s.2(4)) — and the overseas-work and employer-required-training limbs are not among them.
- Omitting probationary-period particulars, or stating a duration without the conditions (s.1(4)(ga)).
- A holiday clause that says “28 days” to an irregular-hours worker. That is not “precisely calculable” under s.1(4)(d)(i) where reg 15B accrual applies.
- A sick-pay clause still describing waiting days and a lower earnings limit — a regime repealed on 6 April 2026, restated to every new starter on their first day.
- Missing the seven-day currency rule. The s.1(4) particulars must be accurate as at a specified date not more than seven days before the statement is given, which means a pay scale copied from an eighteen-month-old template does not comply even if nothing has changed.
How does Taito.ai help with day-one documentation?
The statement fails on timing far more often than on drafting, and the timing failure is almost always a sequencing one: the offer is accepted, the start date moves forward a fortnight, and the document somebody meant to produce in week one is overdue before anyone has opened the template. Taito.ai is a people operations system that holds the employment record, the working pattern and the leave policy together, so the particulars a statement needs are read off the record instead of re-keyed by whoever is running the onboarding.
Taito.ai is not legal advice, and it does not track statutory change on your behalf. When a limb is added to s.1(4) or a rate moves, updating your template is still an employer’s job to do and to notice. What it does handle is consistency: the same starter type gets the same document on the same day, rather than whatever the last onboarding happened to copy.
For the EU-wide picture under Directive 2019/1152, with Finland, Sweden and Germany specifics, see what should be in an employment contract — that guide covers a different instrument and a different set of jurisdictions from the UK duty in ERA 1996 s.1. Then check the two particulars most likely to be out of date: holiday pay for irregular-hours workers and the reformed SSP rules from 6 April 2026. Both are indexed, alongside the calculators and the compliance calendar, on UK employment compliance.
