Bank asking for "Pre employment questionairre"!!!

[handyandy]

I'm afraid it is getting quite common with many of the banks (retail and investment) as they need to show their internal and external auditors that they have effective controls in place to prevent fraud - auditors are more and more talking the line that pre-employment checks shoudl be rigourous and applied not just to permies but to contractors, temps, veondors and even conslutants (whoops - did I mis-spell that).

My current gig has this requirement and I've seen some people we'd expected to bring in via an outsourced supplier get knocked back because the individuals couldn't provide the details - I even saw one guy get walked off site when a check came back showing he had a CCJ that he hadn't disclosed.

I was a little unsure myself but it is becoming standard practice and the same level of checking is applied to consultants who come on site and access my clients systems.

Another way to think about it is to compare it to all those MOD jobs that require SC or DV security checks - if you're a contractor and you have to have that level of checking does it make you an employee in IR35 terms? I don;t think so.

I'd suggest the key defence in an IR35 investigation woudl be whether they only apply this level of check to employees and contractors but they allow other third parties to work on site without checks on the individual.

[faceless]

Does this mean that you've actually filled in and given back the pre employment form???!!!

I'm afraid it is getting quite common with many of the banks (retail and investment) as they need to show their internal and external auditors that they have effective controls in place to prevent fraud - auditors are more and more talking the line that pre-employment checks shoudl be rigourous and applied not just to permies but to contractors, temps, veondors and even conslutants (whoops - did I mis-spell that).

My current gig has this requirement and I've seen some people we'd expected to bring in via an outsourced supplier get knocked back because the individuals couldn't provide the details - I even saw one guy get walked off site when a check came back showing he had a CCJ that he hadn't disclosed.

I was a little unsure myself but it is becoming standard practice and the same level of checking is applied to consultants who come on site and access my clients systems.

Another way to think about it is to compare it to all those MOD jobs that require SC or DV security checks - if you're a contractor and you have to have that level of checking does it make you an employee in IR35 terms? I don;t think so.

I'd suggest the key defence in an IR35 investigation woudl be whether they only apply this level of check to employees and contractors but they allow other third parties to work on site without checks on the individual.

[handyandy]

Does this mean that you've actually filled in and given back the pre employment form???!!!

Yep - no one gets through the door without having provided details of past 3 years worth of gigs (simply saying you're an employee of MyCo is no good). Even the Accenture consultants have to do the same thing. In addition you sign a waiver greeing to credit checks being carried out (to identify bankrupts and people with uncleared CCJ's) and also giving the client the right to do other background checks.

[The Lone Gunman]

I'd suggest the key defence in an IR35 investigation woudl be whether they only apply this level of check to employees and contractors but they allow other third parties to work on site without checks on the individual.

I would suggest that you could easily defend this position by the fact that the plumber and the cleaning staff do not have the knowledge or the access to the system required to steal data let alone defraud or rob the institution.