Yes, you can ask a prospective employee to complete a medical questionnaire but only after it has made them a job offer and only if it complies with UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

Section 60(1) of the Equality Act 2010, also prohibits employers from asking job applicants questions about their health before offering them employment (with some exceptions).

If you intend to ask prospective employees to complete a medical questionnaire after making them an offer of employment, you must ensure that you have a legal basis to do so under the UK GDPR, as this will amount to processing their personal data. For example, you would have a legal basis to do so if you need to establish an employee’s fitness to do the work you are employing them to do, for example to comply with health and safety obligations or risk assessments you may have in place.

Information about an individual’s health falls into the special categories of personal data under the UK GDPR. An employer can process special category data where this is necessary for the purposes of performing or exercising employment law obligations or rights, such as in relation to health and safety as noted above.

However, you must have a thorough GDPR Policy in place that explains how you will comply with the principles of the UK GDPR in relation to the special category of personal medical data, how you will store this data, how long you will retain it for and when you will delete it.

We would advise our clients that if you have a need to obtain medical data then you should engage with an Occupational Health Practitioner. If you receive any medical information back from an employee, you aren’t a medical expert, so you need to think about what you do with that information! If a condition is mentioned, I wouldn’t know whether this was OK or not based on a Job Description or a risk assessment, but an Occupational health Practitioner will. They will be able to advise you on the information you receive from your new employee and make a medical decision for you as to whether this person is fit to do your role or not.

How can we help?

Need us to recommend a good Occupational Health Practitioner, then get in touch and we’d be happy to suggest a few for you to contact help@merakihr.com

If you need help with a sickness absence or health issue then lets have a chat about it. You can book a meeting with us here.