Every employee and worker must have a written statement of their main terms on or before their first day. The employment starter pack writes it, with the contract around it, from £895 +VAT, agreed in writing before work starts.
Every employee and every worker must receive a written statement of the main terms of their job on or before their first day. That has been the rule in England, Wales and Scotland since 6 April 2020, and it applies to a business with one member of staff exactly as it does to one with five hundred. Before that date employers had two months, and contracts written for the old rule are still in use.
The main statement has to be a single document, and it must set out:
Sick pay and procedures, other paid leave and notice periods can sit in a separate document the employee can easily get to, given on the same day. Pensions, collective agreements, optional training and the disciplinary and grievance procedures can follow within two months of the start date.
The cost of leaving it out shows up later. If an employee brings a successful tribunal claim of another kind, such as unfair dismissal or unpaid wages, and the statement was missing or incomplete when the claim began, the tribunal must add two weeks’ pay to the award and can make it four, under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002.
The written statement records the basic terms of the job. A contract that protects a small business adds the clauses the law will not supply for you: a probation period with its own notice, a longer notice period from the employee, a right to deduct money owed when someone leaves, a right to lay staff off when work dries up, and confidentiality and restrictive covenants that fit the role. Each of these exists only if it is written down before the employee starts, or agreed in writing afterwards.
If the contract is silent on any of these, the default position leaves the business with less room to act.
A review date, the standard you will review against and a shorter notice period while probation runs, so the decision to confirm or end the job is made on a date both sides knew about.
Without a clause, an employee who has worked a month need give only one week’s notice, which is little time to replace someone in a team of five. A pay-in-lieu clause lets you end employment straight away without breaching the contract.
You can deduct from wages only where the law requires it, the employee agreed in writing beforehand, or a written contract term allows it (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 13). Recovering holiday taken but not earned, or training costs on leaving, needs that term in place first.
Sending staff home unpaid, or cutting their hours, when work dries up is a breach of contract unless the contract gives you that right. The employee is still owed statutory guarantee pay for workless days.
A written clause defines which information is confidential, during and after employment, and confirms that the business owns the designs, code, recipes and client material the employee creates in the job.
A court will not rewrite a covenant that goes too far; it strikes it out. So we draw each one around the clients and staff the employee dealt with, for a period that matches their role.
The role, the hours, the pay and who else already works for you. Use the form in the header.
A fixed price against a written scope. Nothing starts, and nothing is chargeable, until you say yes.
The statement, contract, offer letter and the rest of the pack, written for the job you described, with a note on what each clause does.
If you have nothing in writing, or you are hiring for the first time, the starter pack covers it. If you already use a contract and want to know whether it does what you need, a review costs less.
Every other employment job and its price, including the HR policies and staff handbook, is on employment law fixed fees.
For your first hire, or the first one put on a proper footing.
You already use a contract, or a template, and want it read before the next hire.
Illustrative figures. A bakery has two part-time counter staff, paid through payroll for three years on a verbal agreement, and is about to hire a full-time baker. The owner also uses a self-employed delivery driver three fixed days a week, in the bakery’s van.
The two counter staff are owed written statements now. Giving them correct ones today means a later claim does not carry the two to four weeks’ pay addition. The new baker needs a statement on the first day, an offer letter before handing in notice elsewhere, and a contract with probation, a four-week notice period from the employee, and a deductions clause covering the food hygiene course the bakery pays for. The driver’s arrangement needs testing: fixed days, the bakery’s vehicle and no right to send someone else point towards worker status, and a worker is also owed a written statement and paid holiday.
All of that sits inside the employment starter pack, from £895 +VAT, or £805.50 +VAT for a subscriber. Commercial solicitors commonly charge £200 to £350 +VAT an hour, so £895 buys between two and a half and four and a half hours of their time, with the total known only at the end.
The written statement goes to employees and workers alike, so part-time, casual and zero-hours staff need one too. A self-employed contractor does not, but the label in the paperwork does not decide which one somebody is. A tribunal looks at how much control you have over the work, whether they must do it personally, and whether you must offer work and they must accept it. The starter pack includes a contractor agreement for people who are self-employed, and we tell you if the facts point the other way. Longer freelance and associate arrangements are covered on consultant and associate agreements.
Drafting employment contracts and written statements is not a reserved legal activity, so the Buzz Legal team does this work at a fixed price. Buzz Legal Ltd is a legal services firm, so our own work does not carry the SRA compensation fund or the Legal Ombudsman. Where a matter turns into a dispute that needs an authorised firm, it goes to AD Solicitors (SRA no. 8011228), and you are told that at the scoping stage, before any invoice. If a claim has already arrived, start at employment tribunal defence.
Employment law in Northern Ireland is set by separate legislation; tell us if your staff work there. The law described here is the law in England, Wales and Scotland; for advice on your own situation, send us the details.
You must give every employee and worker a written statement of the main terms of their job on or before their first day, whatever the size of the business. The statement records the terms of the contract. A fuller contract adds the clauses a small business needs and the law does not supply: probation, a longer notice period, deductions from pay, lay-off, confidentiality and restrictive covenants. The employment starter pack writes both, from £895 +VAT.
The employment starter pack is from £895 +VAT, or from £805.50 +VAT for subscribers. It covers the employment contract and day-one written statement, an offer letter, a confidentiality agreement, a contractor agreement and restrictive covenants. If you already use a contract and want it checked, an employment contract review is £249 +VAT. Each price is agreed in writing before work starts.
You can, and we publish one: the employment contract template. A template gives you the statutory headings. It cannot know your hours pattern, how you pay, what you would need to deduct, or which clients a leaver could take with them, and those clauses decide what happens when an employment ends badly. If you use a template, a £249 +VAT review checks it against how your business runs.
Yes. Since 6 April 2020 the right covers workers as well as employees, so casual and zero-hours staff are entitled to a written statement on or before their first day. Where hours vary, the statement must say how they vary and how the worker will be told. For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday for irregular-hours and part-year workers can be accrued at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, and the contract should say which method you use.
Give one now. If an employee later wins a tribunal claim of another kind, such as unfair dismissal or unpaid wages, and the statement was missing or incomplete when the claim began, the tribunal must award two weeks’ pay for it and can award four, under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002. A correct statement given before any claim removes that addition. Existing staff can be brought onto a proper contract as part of the starter pack.
The Buzz Legal team. Employment contracts and written statements are non-reserved work under the Legal Services Act 2007, so an authorised firm is not required to prepare them. Buzz Legal Ltd is a legal services firm. Anything that turns into a dispute needing an authorised firm goes to AD Solicitors, SRA no. 8011228, and you are told before you spend anything.
Describe the role, the hours and the staff you already employ, or attach the contract you use now. You get back a fixed price against a defined scope before any work starts. See the privacy policy for how we use your details.
The day-one statement, contract and offer letter, from £895 +VAT, fixed in writing before work starts. 10% off for subscribers.
