3. Forms for Referencing

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3. Forms for Referencing

You may remember from the questions we asked within the application form, in order to join us as a Security Officer, you must first have passed through our referencing and vetting process.

The first part of our referencing and vetting process is for you to fill in our online Referencing & Vetting Form which will outline your previous 5-year employment history.

As you can imagine, this is a thorough process as our primary aim is the security of the airport and our passengers.

You can help the process by being open, accurate and detailed which helps us initiate all checks as early as possible.

This also helps avoid delays where unknown information requires an additional reference check at a late stage which may impact your start date.

We’ve created this guide to help you fill in the online Referencing & Vetting Form correctly, with hints and tips on where people often go wrong.

It is really important that the information you provide is 100% accurate so we understand it may take some time for you to gather all of the correct information.

If you do not know the exact dates it may be helpful to review old contracts of employment or payslips which may help with start and/or end dates.

Unfortunately, if there are significant differences in the dates you provide and the references we receive back, it may cause unavoidable delays that may impact your start date.

You may also want to start looking at your education certificates and/or travel information in the last five years as this can help you with information you may need to provide to us later in the process.

You will find a link to fill in the online Referencing & Vetting Form within your emails.

This email also contains information on the HMRC 5-year employment history letter which you will need to request.

The online Referencing & Vetting Form is hosted by Tazio, a third-party supplier, so the first thing you will need to do is a create an account with a password.

You will then be able to revisit the online Referencing & Vetting Form as many times as you like in order for you to update your employment history and reference details.

You’ll be able to save your progress as you go along.

Once you submit your form you will not be able to make any other changes.

3a. HMRC 5 Year Employment History

Your HMRC 5-year employment history letter is an essential piece of information that we need in order to assist us with completing the referencing and vetting process.

To help make the process as smooth as possible please apply to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for a record of your employment history as soon as you’ve received a positive outcome following your Telephone interview.

This letter is of use for two main reasons;

The first, is that it will help you to ensure that the information you are providing within the online Referencing & Vetting Form is 100% accurate.

Secondly, if you are successful in receiving a conditional job offer from us we will also need to see a copy of this letter for the following reasons:

To cross check against the information that you have already supplied to us within the online Referencing & Vetting Form and at the Security Interview stage.
It helps us identify who we need to request references from.
It helps identify whether any of those organisations may have changed their name or gone into liquidation.
In exceptional circumstances where we are unable to obtain a reference from a company we may be able to use the HMRC record to support us.

How do I apply for it?

There will be instructions included within the Telephone Interview invite email, however for ease we have included these again for you below.

Go to the following page on the HMRC website https://www.gov.uk/get-proof-employment-history and download and complete the application form and send it to HMRC (the address is on the form).
If you need to call the HMRC you can do so on 0300 200 3300. When you speak to an agent please advise them that you need a letter from them confirming your previous 5-year employment history.

How long does it take once I’ve submitted the application?

Typically, it can take the HMRC between 10 – 20 days to respond. In some instances, however, this can take up to 40 days.

We would therefore recommend not delaying and requesting this document right away.

Remember, you will need to have filled in the online Referencing & Vetting Form before you can be invited back in for a Security Interview and you may need this HMRC letter in order to do so.

Where should I send it when I have received the letter?

At the Formal Offer stage (and not before) we will need a photograph of all pages of the letter.

When we are ready for them, and do not worry we will let you know once we get there, these photographs will need to be emailed to referencing@heathrow.com

3b. Referencing & Vetting Form

Logging In

Before you can fill out the form, you will need to register with your name and email address and select a password. This will allow you to return to the form later to complete it.

Please ensure you use the exact same name and email address you have used on your application form when you register.

What information is required?

The Referencing & Vetting Form will be split into sections which will include:

Basic information
Travel details
Background checks

When you receive the link to complete this form you may feel that you can accurately go ahead and fill this in right away, perhaps you know your 5-year history and have all of the information to hand.

If you do not have documents that may help you then we would strongly recommend that you wait until you have your letter from the HMRC which details your 5-year employment history.

To give you an understanding of some of the questions you will be asked we have included some examples below (please note that this is not a complete list).

Basic information

Such as full name, date and town of birth, National Insurance number, contact number(s).
Current address of residence, full details of any other residential addresses within the last five years.
Identity document details (for example your passport details) including any visas or work permits. (Please see our guidance on share codes in the section Common Mistakes further down this page).

Travel details

Details of all countries you have travelled to for more than 28 consecutive days in the past five years.
You will need to share exact dates and the reason for your visit.

Background checks

5-year background check where referee details are required (we won’t contact these people until we need to, we will contact your past referees first, however, we will not contact your current employer / referee without your express prior consent).
You will need to confirm EXACT employment start and end dates (correct to the day).
You will need to outline the employment type, such as full time, temporary contract, zero hours.
You will also need to include the reason for leaving a previous role.
If you have worked through an agency and were therefore paid directly by the agency and not the company where you were working, then you will need to provide the agency’s details.
Any gaps of employment over 28 days will need to be explained including what you were doing during this period, where you resided, how you supported yourself, and include a referee who knows you well enough and who can account for your activities during this time.

We understand that you may feel that some of this information is personal and you may be anxious about sharing certain details with us.

The reason we ask you to share all information with us, is to ensure we reference each period in the right way.

There is no judgement by us and it will not stop you from starting with Heathrow.

However, where new or updated information is shared late in the process this can delay your start date.

How to account for self-employment?

If you have been self-employed at any point in the past five years you will need to provide one or more of the following pieces of information to cover the period of self-employment for our referencing standards:

HMRC form SA302 documents for the corresponding tax years where you have been self-employed.
If your self-employment is in the current year, or you have not previously registered your self-employment and need to do so retrospectively, we will require a letter from the HMRC detailing your UTR code and the periods this covers.
A reference from your accountant(s) if you were registered with an accountant during your period(s) of self-employment.

Where you have only used an accountant for part of your self-employment period, you will need to provide another relevant piece of information to cover the remaining time.

What do we do with this information?

If you are successful at one of our Assessment Centres, you will need to have completed the online Referencing & Vetting Form within three days of receiving your outcome but as we’ve mentioned we would encourage you to complete this much sooner if you have all of the required information.

Once we have a copy our team will check the form to make sure you’ve filled in everything you need to.

We will then call you to schedule you in for a face to face meeting at Heathrow lasting 15 – 30 minutes with a member of our ID Centre Team.

This will take place on the same day as your medical check, and these are the final steps that you will need to go through before we would look to make you a formal offer of employment.

Your meeting with the ID Centre Team will be focused around your responses within the Referencing & Vetting Form in order for them to establish whether they believe they have all of the necessary information to progress you into the referencing and vetting process.

After your Security Interview, we will use all of the information that you’ve provided to carry out other essential background checks as part of our referencing and vetting process, including making contact with your referees.

This form will also tell us whether you may need other checks, such as an Overseas Criminal Record Check.

Common Mistakes or Missing Information

If you are part of the EU Settlement Scheme then we will need you to provide a share code. This code is valid for 30 days, so we advise that you attain it after your Virtual Assessment.

It is extremely important that you are honest and tell us everything about your last five years in as much detail as possible.

We know you may feel uncomfortable sharing some information with us. We would not ask for it if we didn’t really need it.

For example; if you have worked cash in hand, or had multiple jobs or a mixture of working, volunteering, education all at the same time, or, if you have been dismissed from a role.

We need to know, and if you don’t tell us, we will find out further down the process, it’s what these checks are for.

Start dates are often delayed due to new information coming to light towards the end of the referencing and vetting process and often results in our team having to get a new previously undisclosed reference.

If you have been overseas for six months or more in the last five years this may also affect your ability to obtain CTC clearance, this includes multiple trips to the same country that totals up to 6 months in the last 5 years. Please confirm you understand that if you have been outside of the country for more than 6 months in the last five years, you may be unable to obtain CTC clearance.

We would need to obtain an Overseas Criminal Record Check (OCRC) for each country you visited, applying for this check can take different amounts of time for each country and so the earlier we can start this, the better.

Screenshot of the online Referencing & Vetting Form. You can also access this on a mobile device.

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