Illegal interview questions

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As an interviewer, you must be very careful about asking certain questions because they may contravene anti-discrimination laws. And, whilst you would probably be able to recognise a blatant discriminatory question, there are often “grey” areas within a job interview that may seem harmless, yet are illegal. As such we have put together this short guide to illegal interview questions for your reference.

Illegal interview questions

ILLEGAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Questions about place of birth,ethnicity and religion

As an employer you are entitled to ask at interview

if someone has the correct paperwork to legally

work in the UK. However you are not allowed

to ask where they were born - for example you

cannot say “You have an interesting surname,

where are you from?” This could be construed as

hiring staff on the grounds of nationality,

race or ethnicity.

In an interview you cannot ask someone about

their ethnic background. Additionally, on no

account can you ask a job applicant about their

religion. For example a question such as “What

religious holidays will you need off?” is illegal.

Questions about marital status, children and sexual orientation

You should not make any reference to a person’s

marital status, how many children they may have

or their sexual orientation. All could be grounds for

discrimination as you may be accused of treating

a person differently by making unfair inferences

about how their family situation will affect their

ability to do the job.

You should avoid questions such as “What does

your wife do for a living?” or “What are your

children called?”

Questions about age

Unless the job you are recruiting for has an age

restriction (such as a driving job), you should not

ask any questions about a person’s age. Questions

such as “When did you finish school/graduate?”

and “When do you plan to retire?” are deemed

discriminatory and thus illegal.

Questions about disability and illness

As a general interview guide, you will need to

tread carefully here. You are entitled to question a

person over a significant period of sickness leave.

However, you are not allowed to ask a person

whether or not an illness/ disability would affect

their ability to do the job.

Recruitment Guide

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Questions about lifestyle choices

It’s also illegal at interviews for employers to

ask candidates any questions relating to their

personal lifestyle choices, for example about their

consumption of alcohol, whether they smoke

or use recreational drugs. Whilst a company is

entitled to have internal policies on these issues,

what an employee does outside of work is not

the company’s business and thus this topic is out

of bounds.

Criminal convictions

Interviewers cannot ask a candidate anything

related to any arrests or convictions they may

have. For certain jobs, you are entitled to run a

Criminal Records Bureau check which Recruitment

Genius can help you with prior to interview.

However, any findings from that must not form

part of your interview techniques.

Group membership

Questions about membership or affiliations with

any organisations should also not be asked at

interviews unless they are directly related to

any problem you might foresee in terms of the

candidate’s time commitments and how that might

affect their ability to do the job.

Other personal questions

Questions about height and weight are also

discriminatory unless the job is exempt in terms

of it being acceptable to have a certain minimum

height requirement.

ILLEGAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

© Recruitment Genius 2013-2017. These guides are not intended to be, and should not be relied on as,

professional or legal advice, and clients should verify independently any statements made in them

and rely on their own judgement when adopting any suggestions or ideas in them. Recruitment Genius

does not assume any liability in relation to such guides.

Please call: 01732 617 460 hello@recruitmentgenius.com

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