Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will take steps to promote the completion of full and detailed references by employers for their former employees.

There is no statutory obligation on an employer to provide a reference; although an employee may have a contractual entitlement to one if their contract of employment contained an express term to this effect. The Government does not think it would be right to intervene to require them to do so.

Employers who do provide references are under a duty both to the employee and to prospective employers to take reasonable care in doing so. If evidence did come to light about misleading or inaccurate information - not merely unfavourable or critical of someone’s performance in a previous job - the prospective employee would have the option of taking legal action in the civil courts against the source of that information.