Support for BS7858 Applications

This short video will give you a good overview of the BS7858 screening process, from application to completion.

About BS7858 – why am I being screened?

Because your employer, or potential employer, has requested it. This screening is a mandatory part of their recruitment process and your start date or offer of employment may be delayed or withdrawn if the screening isn’t completed successfully.

How do I complete the screening successfully?

1. Read this page and
2. Prepare your documents and complete the application form
3. Provide extra information and documents as quickly as possible – we will contact you several times throughout the screening process. This can happen if gaps appear in your Career History e.g., if the dates you provided differ from those confirmed by your referee. In those cases you will need to provide extra documents to cover the gap period (if the gap is more than 31 days).

What checks are in a BS7858?

We carry out these checks as part of a BS7858 screening check:

• ID and Address check
• 5 or 10 Year Career History – you must enter all jobs, education and gaps for the last five years (or ten years if it’s a ten-year screening application).
• Basic DBS Check
• Consumer Information Check – this won’t affect your credit rating
  • CCJ check
  • Insolvency check
  • IVA check
  • Directorship check
• Global Watchlist check (fraud and financial sanctions checks)
• SIA licence check (if applicable)
• 5-Year address verification
• Name history since birth check
• Optional extra: Pre-Employment checks for the last three years’ employment

The Screening Process

1. Get all your documents together – see the list below – documents should be English to avoid delays and the extra cost of translation.
2. Complete the application form – we’ll email you a link to it
3. Your sponsor checks it and submits it to us
4. We carry out a consent, ID and address check, Credit check and apply for the Basic DBS check.
5. Pre-Employment Checks (not applicable to every applicant) – we check your last 3-year’s employment.
6. Full 5-year Career History – this is where we ask your previous employers for a reference.
7. QA – this is where we review the entire application and check it meets the BS7858 Standard’s requirements.
8. Reporting – this is where we report the outcome to your sponsor (our client).

Acceptable Documents for BS7858 Screening

Essential documents to provide:

• Passport – in date
• Photo driving licence – in date
• Birth certificate – dated from birth (or adoption certificate)
• PAYE records – the best evidence for your career history – download them for free here.
• 5-Year NI Records – you can apply for these for free here.
• Council Tax Bill – dated within the last 12 months
• Bank statement* – dated within the last 3 months
• Utility bill (not for a mobile) – dated within the last 3 months

Other acceptable documents include:

• Payslips
• P45 or P60
• Employment contract/letter
• Benefits letters / Pension statements
• Accountant’s statements
• Invoices to clients (for the self-employed)
• Self-assessment tax returns
• Educational qualification certificates

*You can black out your outgoing payments and total balance from your bank statements.

**All documents should be in English. If we have to translate them, this may delay your screening and start date.

• Contact our Customer Support Team for further evidence assistance.

Giving Your Consent

When completing your application you will need to print and hand sign the Consent Form and upload a copy of it to your application. If you can’t print out your consent form, please email info@staffvetting.com and ask for a digital consent form. After you sign that, you’ll need to upload all the pages it sends you to your application.

• Application forms without valid consent can’t be processed and will be placed on-hold until this is provided.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing info@staffvetting.com but be aware that doing so will mean we stop the screening and that may affect your employment with your Sponsor.

Identity Check

You will be required to provide a copy your valid (in date) passport, birth certificate (dated since birth) or a photo driving licence to prove your identity (see our list of Acceptable ID Documents) and if you are an SIA licence holder, a copy of all your SIA Licence(s). You cannot use the same document as proof of your ID and address. You have to use different documents.

Current Address Check

You also need to provide copies of two (2) valid documents to prove your current address (see our list of Acceptable Address History Documents) e.g. a photo driving licence and a utility bill (not a mobile phone) dated within the last 3 months. You cannot use the same document to prove your current address as proof of your ID.

• Your name, date and address must appear on these two documents.
• They should also be dated within the last three months.

Pre-Employment Checks (covering the last 3-years)

If your sponsor has asked us to, we will verify all the periods of work, study and any gaps in employment in the last 3 years.

We don’t contact any previous employers at this point, we just verify the names, dates and the documents you’ve provided to support each period you listed to check if they are valid.

• You must add any and all jobs, travel, unemployment and education in the last three years.

How many documents to upload for employment periods:

• For an employment period of 1 to 6 months, upload one document dated from the start of the period and one dated from the end. These must be two different documents e.g., you could use a payslip and a P45.
• For an employment period of 6 to 12 months, upload one document dated from the start of the period, one dated from the middle and one dated from the end. This means three documents in total e.g., you could use two payslips and a P45 for the end of the period.
• For an employment period of 1 year or more, upload one document dated from the start, end, and each year in-between. Remember: the documents you upload to cover the start and end of the period must always be different e.g., a payslip and a P45.

Please note:

• If you don’t provide the correct document(s) for any period during your pre-employment check, we’ll let you know and ask you for extra or alternative documents. This may delay your start date.
• The best evidence for career history checks are PAYE records (which you can download for free in a few minutes) and your 5-year NI records from HMRC, which you can ask HMRC to post to you (and may take two weeks to arrive).

5-Year Career History

We will need to verify all career history periods for the past five years. This means we’ll contact your previous employers and educational establishments etc.

• You must add any and all jobs, travel, unemployment and education in the last five years.

It can take time for referees to respond to us – and sometimes they do not respond at all. This is why having your PAYE records speeds the process up. We can use them as evidence instead of the reference.

• If we don’t receive a reference, we may ask you for extra documents.
• We won’t contact your current employer without your consent.
• Some applicants may need to provide a 10-year career history if their employer requested it.

The best evidence for career history checks are PAYE records (which you can download for free in a few minutes) and your 5-year NI records from HMRC, which you can ask HMRC to post to you (and may take two weeks to arrive).

Referees – Accurate Employment Dates and Names are Critical

Please enter the exact dates of your previous employment and unemployment etc. over the past five years. Any gaps of 31 days or more in employment will still need to be supported by evidence.

Very Good to Know and Remember

BS7858 is a very high level of screening standard. We only ever ask you for relevant evidence and information and we may do this several times through the screening process – filling in your application form is just the beginning.

1. It can take 12 weeks to complete the full screening process so we thank you in advance for working with us and your patience.
2. Check your spam folder – just in case our emails ended up there.
3. We might ask you to provide more documents after you’ve filled in your application form – this is because some of the information provided in your application may be incomplete, insufficient to meet the standard’s criteria, or it may differ with evidence provided to us by your referees. It’s our job to work with you and verify the information you provide so you can meet the Standard. The quicker you can reply, the quicker we can complete your screening.
4. Your referees are not legally obliged to respond to our requests or obliged to provide a reference for you. If we don’t receive a reference from them, we’ll ask you for more documents to support the period of employment that is missing a reference.
5. If you’d like to know how far along your screening is, please contact your Sponsor directly. We’re not allowed to reveal screening updates to you during the screening process – we’re only allowed to ask you to provide information or documents in support of your application.
6. We make no judgments about your suitability for the role for which you are applying. We don’t recommend that you should or should not be employed.
7. We are obliged to follow the British Standard with respect to the way in which we carry out the checks and what evidence is acceptable to meet the Standard. Sometimes you might provide a document which is genuine, but it may not be on the list of acceptable documents. In that case, we have to ask you for a different document.
8. The screening process is always carried out with the your full consent and you can withdraw this at any time by emailing info@staffvetting.com – be aware that withdrawing your consent means we’ll stop the screening and that might affect your employment with your Sponsor.
9. Once you submit your application you will no longer be able to access it – this is to protect your data.
10. We also have a strict Mutual Respect Policy in place which seeks to treat everyone we work with, with kindness, dignity and respect.

How long does it take to complete the screening?

The British Standard allows up to 12 weeks for the screening to be completed, but most applications are completed before that, typically between 4-6 weeks depending on the complexity of the application. If for example, you have only had one job in the last five years, this means the screening will go much quicker compared to if you’ve had ten jobs in the last five years. This is because we must ask for references from each previous employer, or, where a reference isn’t possible, we need to ask for supporting evidence to cover the period.

The pre-employment checks that we carry out on the most recent three years’ career history are usually completed with a couple of weeks or a few days if the correct type and number of career history documents have been provided.

Delays are usually caused when an application form isn’t filled out correctly at the start. This means it either lacks some critical ID and address information or doesn’t include a full career history i.e. some jobs may not have been listed. When a reference comes back from the jobs that are listed in the career history, a gap may appear if the dates don’t match what has been declared in the application. We then have to ask the applicant to provide the missing detail.

Contacting the Support Team

We are here to help. You can always email the Support Team directly with any questions you might have about your BS7858 screening.

And you should contact your Sponsor or Employer directly if you would like to find out about the status of your recruitment because we only provide the provide the screening checks on their behalf.