offer-letter

---
name: offer-letter
description: Writes a UK job offer letter and the written statement of employment particulars that a new starter must be given on or before their first day. Use when you have chosen someone and need the paperwork ready before their first shift.
---

# The paperwork your new starter must have before their first shift

You give the facts about the job: who is employing, who is starting, when, where, what they are paid, what hours, what holiday. You get back two things written out in full and ready to print: a job offer letter you can send today, and the written statement of employment particulars that UK law says the person must have on or before the day they start work. Anything you have not told us is left marked for you to fill in, never guessed.

## What it does

1. **Collect every fact before writing a single line.** Ask for and write down: the legal name of the employing business and its trading name if different, the employer's address, the person's full name, the job title, the start date, the site or sites they will work at, the pay rate and how often it is paid, the hours and days pattern, holiday, probation, notice, sick pay, pension provider, any training they must complete, how tips are handled, and who they report to. GOV.UK's list of what the principal statement must contain includes "the employer's name", "the employee's or worker's name, job title or a description of work and start date", "how much and how often an employee or worker will get paid", "hours and days of work and if and how they may vary", "holiday entitlement", "where an employee or worker will be working" and "how long any probation period is and what its conditions are" (GOV.UK, Written statement of employment particulars). Any fact the owner does not supply is written into the draft as `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` in square brackets, and is never filled in with a sensible-sounding guess.

2. **Separate the offer from the statement, and say plainly which is which.** The offer letter is the invitation, and it can be conditional and can be withdrawn if a condition fails. The written statement of employment particulars is the legal document that sets out the terms, and it is not conditional on anything. Acas allows the two to be sent as one piece of paper: its template page states "This job offer letter includes the job's 'written statement of employment particulars'. It must be provided on or before the first day of employment." Follow that structure, but keep the conditional offer paragraphs and the particulars under clearly separate headings so that withdrawing an offer never reads as tearing up a contract.

3. **Write the conditional offer paragraph with the conditions named one by one.** Use the Acas wording as the model: "As explained at your **[assessment day / interview]**, this job offer is made subject to satisfactory results from necessary pre-employment checks" (Acas, Job offer letter template: with written statement). Then list the actual conditions rather than leaving them vague: the right to work check, references, and any DBS or food hygiene requirement. Name the right to work check explicitly, because GOV.UK is direct about the timing: "You must check that a job applicant is allowed to work for you in the UK before you employ them" (GOV.UK, Check a job applicant's right to work). Finish the paragraph with a date by which the person should reply and a line on who to contact to accept.

4. **Check the pay against the National Minimum Wage before it goes anywhere near the letter.** Open https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates and read the rate for that person's age band and for apprentices, because the bands change every 1 April. Divide the total pay for a typical week by the contracted hours for that week and compare. In hospitality the usual ways a legal-looking rate drops below the minimum are unpaid trial shifts, unpaid time spent cashing up or waiting for a taxi after close, and deductions for uniform, breakages or accommodation, so check each of those before signing off the figure. If the rate comes out below the minimum, stop, say so in one line, and do not draft the letter.

5. **Write the "who, where and when" block of the principal statement.** Acas lists these as the opening particulars: "the employer's name", "the employee or worker's name", "the start date (the day the employee or worker starts work)", "the date that 'continuous employment'...started for an employee", "job title or a brief description of the job", "the employer's address" and "the places or addresses where the employee or worker will work" (Acas, What must be included). Use the legal employing entity, not the trading name over the door, and if they differ show both. If the person will move between sites, list every site rather than writing "various", because the places of work are a named particular.

6. **Write the pay and hours block, and describe the rota as it really is.** The particulars required here are pay including how often and when it is paid, and working hours including which days must be worked. GOV.UK phrases the hours item as "hours and days of work and if and how they may vary", so if the rota changes week to week say so, say how far in advance it is published and say who sets it. Deal with tips separately from wages: state whether there is a tronc, who runs it, how often it is paid and that it is not part of the hourly rate, and mark it `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` if the owner has not said. If the contract is zero hours or annualised, name it as such in the document.

7. **Write the leave, sickness and benefits block.** Set out holiday and holiday pay, sick leave and sick pay, any other paid leave such as maternity and paternity, and any contractual and non-contractual benefits such as meals on shift or a staff discount. Check the holiday figure against the statutory minimum at https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights, which states "Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days' paid annual leave a year" and, for part-timers, "if they work 3 days a week, they must get at least 16.8 days' leave a year (3 × 5.6)". State explicitly whether bank holidays are inside or on top of that figure, because the same page says "Bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave" and staff routinely assume the opposite.

8. **Write the closing block: probation, notice, how long the job lasts, training and working abroad.** Section 1(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires the particulars to cover notice periods, "Duration of non-permanent employment", "Probationary periods" and "Training entitlements" among others. Give the probation length and what its conditions are, not just the number of months. Give the notice both sides must give, and check it against the statutory minimum notice in the Employment Rights Act 1996 rather than copying a figure from an old letter. If the job is seasonal or fixed term, say when it ends. If any training is compulsory, say whether the employer pays for it.

9. **Write the two-month items and the handover note.** GOV.UK allows four things to come in a wider statement within two months: "pensions and pension schemes", "collective agreements", "any other right to non-compulsory training provided by the employer" and "disciplinary and grievance procedures". Write them into the same document on day one anyway, because a small business will not remember in eight weeks. Where a full procedure lives in a staff handbook, name the document and say exactly where the person can read it. Finish with a signature block for both sides, a line saying to keep one signed copy on file and give one to the employee, and a short plain-English note to the owner listing every `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` still outstanding and what to hand over on day one.

## Then it checks

1. Every particular on the Acas "what must be included" list appears somewhere in the finished document, each carrying either a real value or the words `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]`, and none is silently missing.
2. The document contains a single continuous principal statement rather than the particulars scattered across several attachments, and carries a visible line stating it must be given on or before the first day of employment.
3. The offer section names each condition separately, names the right to work check by name, and gives a date by which the person should reply.
4. The pay figure divided by the contracted weekly hours is at or above the National Minimum Wage rate for that person's age, and the arithmetic is shown in the handover note rather than merely asserted.
5. No name, number, provider, scheme or date appears anywhere in the document that the owner did not supply; every unsupplied value reads `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]`.
6. The four wider-statement items (pension, collective agreements, non-compulsory training, disciplinary and grievance) each appear either in full or as a named document with instructions on where to read it.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Never invent a holiday figure, a notice period, a pension provider, a sick pay scheme or a tips arrangement. A signed written statement is a contractual document, so an invented term is a term the owner is now bound to and may have to pay out on; leaving `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` in the draft costs five minutes, while an invented one costs money and cannot be quietly taken back.
- Never smooth a variable hospitality rota into a tidy fixed number of hours a week. If the owner cannot guarantee those hours, writing them down creates an entitlement to them, and staff who are then short-rostered have a written promise to point at. Write the pattern as it actually works instead.
- Never write a probation clause that shortens notice below the statutory minimum, and never suggest a probation period removes any legal right. Probation affects the employer's own process, not the law, and telling an owner otherwise is worse than saying nothing because they will act on it.
- Never present a missing written statement as an automatic fine. Under section 38 of the Employment Act 2002 the award of two weeks' pay, or four weeks' pay where the tribunal thinks it just and equitable, only arises alongside another successful claim, and overstating it destroys the owner's trust in the rest of the document.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's solicitor, accountant or HR adviser to check before it is signed or sent. It is not legal advice and must never present itself as advice; the owner's adviser signs it off, not this skill.

## Built from
- GOV.UK, "Employment contracts and conditions: Written statement of employment particulars", https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/written-statement-of-employment-particulars, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: supplied the authoritative split between the day-one principal statement, the items that may sit in a separately accessible document, and the four wider-statement items due within two months.
- Acas, "What must be included - Written statements", https://www.acas.org.uk/what-must-be-written-in-an-employment-contract/what-the-written-statement-must-include, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: supplied the fuller field-by-field list that steps 5 to 8 are built from, including continuous employment date, places of work and contractual versus non-contractual benefits.
- UK Parliament, "Employment Rights Act 1996, section 1", https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/1, Act of 1996 as amended, no revision date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: supplied the statutory requirement that the particulars be "included in a single document" and "given not later than the beginning of the employment", which is why step 2 refuses to scatter the terms across attachments.
- Acas, "Job offer letter template: with written statement", https://www.acas.org.uk/job-offer-templates/job-offer-letter-template-with-written-statement, no publication date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: supplied the model conditional-offer sentence quoted in step 3 and the confirmation that one document may lawfully carry both the offer and the statutory particulars.
- UK Parliament, "Employment Act 2002, section 38", https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/22/section/38, Act of 2002, no revision date shown on the page, read 13 September 2026: supplied the exact consequence of getting this wrong, "an amount equal to two weeks' pay" rising to "four weeks' pay" where just and equitable, and the condition that it only attaches to another successful tribunal claim.

# offer-letter

## You are given

A folder from a UK hospitality business containing `employment-facts.md`, everything Claude collected from the owner: the legal name of the employing business and its trading name if different, the employer's address, the person's full name, the job title, the start date, the continuous employment date, the site or sites they will work at, the pay rate and how often it is paid, the hours and days pattern and how it varies, holiday and holiday pay, whether bank holidays are inside or on top, probation length and its conditions, notice both sides must give, sick leave and sick pay, the pension provider, any compulsory training and who pays for it, how tips are handled, who they report to, whether the job is fixed term or seasonal, and the pre-employment conditions the offer is subject to.

There may also be the advert, the previous post holder's written statement and the staff handbook. Claude states the reply date and the interview or assessment day the offer refers back to. You never supply a term the owner did not give.

## Produce

Write into an `output/` folder next to the inputs:

1. `offer-and-statement.md` - one continuous document under two clearly separate headings. Under `Job offer`: the conditional offer paragraph naming each pre-employment condition one by one, with the right to work check named explicitly, the reply date, and who to contact to accept. Under `Written statement of employment particulars`: a visible line stating it must be given on or before the first day of employment, then the four blocks in this order - who, where and when; pay and hours; leave, sickness and benefits; probation, notice, duration, training and working abroad - then the two month items, then a signature block for both sides and a line saying to keep one signed copy on file and give one to the employee.
2. `offer-and-statement-print.md` - the same document laid out for A4 printing.
3. `particulars-checklist.csv` with columns in this order: `Particular`, `Required by` (`principal statement, day one` or `wider statement, within two months`), `Value in the document`, `Status` (`supplied` or `OWNER TO CONFIRM`), `Heading it appears under`. One row per particular, covering at minimum: employer's name, employee's name, job title or description of work, start date, continuous employment date, employer's address, places of work, pay amount, pay frequency and pay day, hours of work, days of work and how they may vary, holiday entitlement, holiday pay, sick leave and sick pay, other paid leave, contractual benefits, non-contractual benefits, probation length, probation conditions, notice from employer, notice from employee, duration of non-permanent employment, training entitlements, compulsory training and who pays, working abroad, pensions and pension schemes, collective agreements, non-compulsory training, disciplinary and grievance procedures.
4. `wage-check.md` - the arithmetic shown, not asserted: the total pay for a typical week, the contracted hours for that week, the division, the resulting hourly figure, the person's age band, the statutory rate for that band and the difference. Use the April 2026 rates as quoted in SKILL.md: £12.71 for 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20, £8.00 for under 18 and for apprentices. Add a line each for unpaid trial shifts, unpaid cashing up or waiting after close, and deductions for uniform, breakages or accommodation, stating for each whether it applies and what it does to the figure. If the result falls below the rate for that band, write the failure at the top, write no letter and stop.
5. `outstanding-confirmations.md` - a numbered plain English list of every `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` left in the document, what it is, and what the owner has to hand over on day one.
6. `handover-note.md` - one short page for the owner: what the offer letter is and what the written statement is, that the offer may be withdrawn if a condition fails and the statement may not, the wage arithmetic reproduced in full, and the reply date.

## Rules

- Every value comes from `employment-facts.md`. Any fact the owner did not supply is written into the draft as `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` in square brackets, and is never filled in with a sensible sounding value. That includes holiday figures, notice periods, pension providers, sick pay schemes and tips arrangements.
- Use the legal employing entity, not the trading name over the door. Where they differ, show both.
- List every site by name. Never write "various" or "as required".
- Never smooth a variable rota into a tidy fixed number of hours a week. If the owner cannot guarantee the hours, write the pattern as it actually works and name the contract as zero hours or annualised where it is.
- Keep tips separate from wages throughout, and state that they are not part of the hourly rate.
- State explicitly whether bank holidays are inside or on top of the holiday figure. If the owner did not say, that line reads `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]`.
- Never write a probation clause that shortens notice, and never write or imply that probation removes a legal right.
- Never write that a missing written statement carries an automatic fine or penalty.
- Keep the particulars in one continuous document. Never scatter them across attachments or refer out to a handbook for a day one particular. Where a full disciplinary, grievance or pension procedure lives in the handbook, name the document and say exactly where the person can read it.
- Make no statement that the document is lawful, compliant or complete. It is a working document prepared for the owner's solicitor, accountant or HR adviser to check before it is signed or sent.
- Use British English, £ and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes.

## Return

A list of the files written with their absolute paths, the count of particulars supplied and the count left as `[OWNER TO CONFIRM]` with each one named, the wage arithmetic in full with the age band used and the pass or fail, whether the legal name and trading name differ, the number of sites listed, and the reply date.