Self-certification checks
Customise your checks to help prove FCA fitness and propriety thresholds, stay ahead of risk, and collect additional information at scale.
Allows candidates to self-declare fitness for regulated roles
Tailored information relevant to your business
Combine with criminal checks, regulatory references, and ID verification for upgraded compliance
What you need to know
Available in
United Kingdom
Built around SMCR fitness and propriety requirements
Get flexible self-declarations to support regulated hiring.
Assess for ‘fit and proper’
For companies regulated under SMCR, self-certifications help you uncover information about your candidate’s character and give your team a more defensible audit trail in the worst case scenario.
Stay flexible
Self-certification checks use flexible forms, allowing you to gather all the information you need (and none of what you don’t). They’re most commonly used for candidates to self-declare unspent criminal convictions, conflicts of interest, or regulatory investigations.
Layered for the full picture
When combined with criminal checks, regulatory references, and identity verification, self-certifications help you feel confident that your candidates can and will perform their role to the standard you expect.
See it in action
Book a demo and choose a time to speak with one of our experts about a custom solution for your business.
20
+
Integrated ATSs and HRISs
3
pre-built
SMCR compliant templates
519,274
Candidates checked with Zinc
Tailored checks should be simple. Easily allow candidates to self-declare in a smooth, mobile-friendly workflow.
Customisable information collection
Visibility over candidate credentials
Award-winning candidate experience
Integrated with your HR tech stack
A check in 10 seconds.
“Zinc is just very easy to use. It’s not a complicated system, you just go in, and you can send a check within 10 seconds. It saves you a lot of admin time, and you don’t have to worry about chasing people for things because Zinc does that.”
Get check results tailored to the questions you actually need to ask.
Step one
Build a customised digital form within your screening package. Tailor questions to role, seniority level, and any regulatory requirements: an SMCR ‘fit and proper’ declaration, a conflict of interest disclosure, or something specific to your business. Different roles can have different question sets.
Step two
Candidates receive the form as part of their standard Zinc journey — no separate link, no separate login. It’s designed to be clear and straightforward, with questions presented one at a time. For regulated candidates, the form captures the specific declarations needed to support a fitness and propriety assessment.
Step three
Completed declarations sit alongside the rest of your screening results, creating a consistent audit trail. With questions and answers in the same format, reviews are easier and the process is more defensible than an inbox full of chaser emails.
Integrations
Background checks, integrated
Zinc connects directly with your ATS or HRIS at no additional cost. Send checks, get results, and store reports without leaving your preferred platform.
Why businesses love using Zinc
%%An intuitive, easy platform%% with support that's far quicker than other providers. The answers are always reliable, especially when we're dealing with different countries.
%%The candidate experience is excellent.%% Integration was straightforward, the pricing is among the best on the market, and support is quick and consistently helpful.
%%It automates the screening of new employees%% and integrates well with our ATS and HRIS. The initial setup was super easy and we're really happy with the product.
Onboarding takes just a few minutes and %%running checks for international contractors is seamless%%. The pay-per-use model is a huge plus for a small company like ours.
%%It has made my role, and my colleagues' day to day, much easier and more efficient%%, while significantly improving the overall experience for our candidates.
Checks and paperwork sync automatically with our recruitment and HR systems, %%saving us so much time%% not having to check multiple systems. The support teams are always incredibly helpful.
For teams of every size
Flexible background checks
Whether you’re hiring a little or a lot.
Under 20 hires annually
Pay As You Grow
Get started in minutes. Our Pay As You Grow plan is built for lower hiring volumes — a flat rate per check, with no hidden costs or setup fees.
Start checking in minutes, no setup needed
Flat rate per check, no hidden fees
Pay only for what you use
20+ hires annually
Custom solutions
For larger volumes, our experts build a package around your needs. Flexible with your hiring and never expires, with integrations, setup, training, and support all included free.
A custom package built around your hiring
Credit pool that never expires or rolls over
Integrations, setup, and training included free
More from Zinc
Check out more resources, straight from our experts
Start screening in days, not weeks
Combine this check with right to work, references, criminal records and more, across 195 countries, in a single candidate journey.
How does self-certification support FCA fitness and propriety assessments?
Self-certification checks give FCA-regulated firms a structured way to capture candidate declarations that independent background checks alone can't provide, including disclosures of unspent criminal convictions, ongoing regulatory investigations, conflicts of interest, and other matters that could affect fitness for the role.
These declarations sit alongside the factual data from criminal checks, register checks, and directorship searches, adding the candidate's own account in a standardised, documented format.
It's worth being clear that self-certification is only as reliable as the candidate's honesty. It's a legal record, a formal declaration, not independent verification. The value is in the consistent audit trail it creates alongside your other checks, and in giving your compliance team a defensible record of what was asked and disclosed before appointment.
Can self-certification check forms be customised for different roles and seniority levels?
Zinc's self-certification check supports customisable digital questionnaires with different question sets for different roles or seniority levels.
The most common uses are SMCR fitness and propriety declarations, conflict of interest disclosures, regulatory investigation disclosures, and US I-9 verification. Non-regulated organisations also use the check to collect information that's useful to hold in one place alongside other pre-employment data.
What questions can employers include in a self-certification check?
The question set is defined by your organisation. Common declarations include:
- Unspent criminal convictions
- Conflicts of interest (undisclosed business relationships, family connections to clients or suppliers, or secondary employment)
- Ongoing regulatory investigations or enforcement
- Fitness and propriety declarations for FCA-regulated roles
- Document uploads like P45 forms or professional accreditations
For SMCR-regulated firms, Zinc includes question templates aligned to FCA fitness and propriety requirements, which you can use as-is or adapt.
The key principle is proportionality: questions should be linked to the specific requirements of the role, explained clearly to candidates, and applied consistently to everyone going through the same process.
Combining self-certification with independent verification checks is always stronger than relying on declaration alone.
Is a digital self-certification declaration legally binding in the UK?
Yes. Digital declarations made through Zinc are legally binding under UK law. The candidate confirms their responses and submits them with explicit acknowledgment that the information they've provided is accurate and complete.
The submission is timestamped and stored as part of their screening record. Zinc is designed to function as a legal record of the candidate's declarations, not an independent verification of them.
The practical compliance value is in the consistent audit trail: every candidate going through the same role type is asked the same questions in the same format, and their responses are stored alongside all other screening data. It’s significantly more defensible than a mix of paper forms and email exchanges if the process is ever subject to FCA audit or employment tribunal scrutiny.
Does self-certification replace other background checks in an employer's screening package?
No. Self-certification captures what candidates are best placed to declare: personal circumstances, conflicts of interest, regulatory history.
Independent checks verify facts that candidates may not disclose voluntarily: criminal records, financial history, employment dates, directorship history. For SMCR and other regulated roles, both are typically required because neither is sufficient on its own. A declaration without independent verification is just the candidate's word. Independent checks without a declaration miss the things only the candidate knows.
Used together, they give you a more complete and more defensible picture of suitability for the role.