Every employer in England and Wales has a legal duty to give a new employee a written statement of their main terms, and an employment contract template UK businesses use is how most of them meet it. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the "section 1 written statement" of employment particulars must be provided to employees and workers on or before their first day (see Sources), it is not something you can get round to later. A proper employment agreement does that job and more: it sets out pay, hours, holiday, notice, and the confidentiality and intellectual property terms that protect the business. This guide explains what a UK employment agreement should cover and how to draft one from vetted clauses in 99 Data Rooms. It is general information, not legal advice.
The people who reach for this are HR and people teams and, just as often, small employers making their first hires without an HR function at all. The risk of getting it wrong is concrete rather than theoretical: an employer who fails to provide a compliant section 1 statement can face a claim, and terms that fall below the legal floor, on the minimum wage or on holiday, for instance, are not saved by having been written down and signed. A current, vetted template is the difference between a contract that protects you and one that quietly creates liabilities. Where a hire is not a permanent employee at all, an intern agreement, a zero-hours contract or a consultancy agreement may be the right document instead.
What a UK employment agreement should cover
A compliant employment contract begins with the particulars the law requires. That means naming the parties and the start date, stating whether previous employment counts towards continuous service, and setting out the job title or a description of the work. It must cover pay, the amount and how often it is paid, and here the National Minimum Wage acts as a hard floor: an employment agreement cannot lawfully pay below the applicable NMW or National Living Wage rate for the worker's age, whatever the contract says (see Sources). It must set out hours of work, including any variation, and place of work.
Holiday is another point where the law sets a minimum you cannot contract beneath. Full-time workers in England and Wales are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday a year under the Working Time Regulations (see Sources), and the agreement should state the entitlement and how it is calculated, including the treatment of bank holidays and part-year or part-time workers. The contract must also address sickness and any sick pay arrangements, pensions, notice periods for both sides, and, where relevant, probation, disciplinary and grievance procedures or where to find them. Getting these right is not box-ticking; it is what keeps the relationship clear and the employer compliant.
A practical benefit of getting the contract right early is that it heads off the most common disputes before they start. Most employment disagreements that end up costing time and money turn on things that a clear contract simply settles: what the notice period is, how holiday is calculated, whether a probation period applied, what the pay actually was. When those terms are written down and signed, there is far less room for a "that is not what we agreed" conversation months later, which protects the employee as much as the employer.
Beyond the statutory particulars, an employment agreement should protect the business. Confidentiality clauses stop an employee sharing sensitive information during and after employment, and an intellectual property clause confirms that work created in the course of employment belongs to the employer, which is usually the default for employees, but is worth stating clearly to avoid argument (our IP assignment guide covers the wider position). Well-drafted agreements also deal with data protection, and, where appropriate and reasonable, restrictive covenants; the latter are only enforceable so far as they go no wider than necessary to protect a legitimate business interest, so they should be handled with care. As ever, this is general information rather than legal advice, and senior or unusual roles are worth a professional review.
How to draft one in 99 Data Rooms
The 99 Data Rooms drafter, "Legal Drafting", carries the Employment Agreement in its "People & Founders" cluster, and the template is visibly written for real UK obligations: it references the section 1 written statement and the NMW floor rather than treating them as optional extras. As with every template here, the assistant works by selecting vetted England and Wales clauses by ID from your answers and filling in the blanks. It assembles from a maintained clause library; it does not write employment law itself. Vetted clauses, assembled.
You can open the template or describe the hire in plain words, "full-time employment contract, £32k, 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, three-month probation", and the assistant asks the questions that shape a compliant statement: the role, pay, hours, holiday, notice and start date. It assembles the draft, including the confidentiality and IP clauses, and saves it free to keep. Because employment terms carry statutory weight and mistakes have consequences, treat the draft as a strong, current baseline and have it reviewed for senior or non-standard roles. It is general information, not legal advice.
From draft to signed contract, in one place
Drafting the employment agreement inside 99 Data Rooms means the whole hiring paperwork stays in one controlled flow rather than pinging around email. Once the draft is ready, you can share it with the new starter as a tracked, revocable link rather than an attachment, gated behind a verified email and one-time code so you know the right person is opening their own contract. Page-by-page analytics show whether they have read it and how long they spent, genuinely useful for a document you would rather an employee actually read than skim, and one where a "verified" viewer who passed the gate is a better record than a bare "sent" in your outbox.
When they are ready to sign, you send it for signature in the browser. The new starter signs without needing an account, you can nudge them with a reminder if the first day is looming, and the executed PDF comes back with an audit certificate recording who signed, when, their IP, intent to sign, and a SHA-256 fingerprint, a clean, dated record that the statement was provided and accepted. Electronic signatures are admissible for most commercial documents in England and Wales, with exceptions such as deeds, wills, land transfers and lasting powers of attorney (see Sources), and that is general information rather than legal advice. The signed contract files itself where HR can find it, and access is revocable in one click if a draft went out in error. Drafted, shared, tracked and signed, one document, always under your control.
Draft your employment contract for free
Draft a compliant England and Wales employment agreement from vetted clauses in 99 Data Rooms, keep the draft, and share or sign it in the same place, with the section 1 statement, NMW floor and holiday entitlement handled from the outset. The free tier is genuine, not a trial: three rooms, twenty-five active links, forever, no card. Start for free: it is in beta and improving fast, and the route from "we need a contract for Monday" to a signed statement with an audit trail already works end to end.
Sources
- Written statement of employment particulars (section 1): Employment Rights Act 1996, s.1, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/1 ; gov.uk guidance, https://www.gov.uk/employment-contracts-and-conditions/written-statement-of-employment-particulars
- National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates: https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
- Statutory holiday of 5.6 weeks: https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights ; Working Time Regulations 1998, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833
- Electronic signatures, validity and witnessing of deeds in England and Wales: Law Commission, Electronic execution of documents (2019), https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/electronic-execution-of-documents/ ; HM Land Registry Practice Guide 82, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/electronic-signatures-accepted-by-hm-land-registry-pg82
Is a written employment contract a legal requirement in England and Wales?
Employers must give employees and workers a written statement of the main terms of employment, the section 1 statement under the Employment Rights Act 1996, on or before their first day. A full employment contract is the usual way to satisfy that duty and to add the protections a business needs. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can an employment contract pay below the minimum wage if the employee agrees?
No. The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are legal floors that a contract cannot undercut, regardless of what the employee signs. Any rate below the applicable minimum for the worker's age is unlawful. The vetted template is written with the NMW floor in mind for exactly this reason.
How much holiday must a UK employment contract give?
Full-time workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday a year in England and Wales, which the contract should state and calculate correctly, including how bank holidays and part-time arrangements are treated. You can offer more, but not less. General information, not legal advice.
Who owns work an employee creates?
For employees, IP created in the course of employment generally belongs to the employer by default, but a clear IP clause puts the position beyond doubt and covers edge cases. The template includes one, and our IP assignment guide explains the underlying law. If a role involves inventions or significant creative output, it is worth checking the wording carefully.
Can a new employee sign their contract online?
Yes. Once drafted, the contract flows into e-signature inside 99 Data Rooms, so the employee signs in the browser and you get an executed PDF with an audit certificate, a dated record that the statement was provided and accepted. E-signatures are admissible for most commercial documents in England and Wales, subject to the usual exceptions. General information, not legal advice.