Hope you are successful in your job search.

There has been changes to immigration rules in 2008 whereby candidates need to justify they can legally work in the UK. This means providing copy of the front cover of your passport, of the information details page and of any visa page to an employer. I am therefore not surprised that the recruitment agency would request the information when creating your profile in their database and before putting your application forward to their client. It will also help the company know if they need to sponsor you for a visa and which visa type if you are a foreigner (i.e Tier 1, tier 2 etc). And do not be surprised if you are asked to bring your passport on the day you start your work so HR can take another copy themselves for their file. They need to do this to be compliant if they get audited by the Border Agency.

Just a question that I wondered if someone could help me with.

I thought that when we applied for jobs, we were no longer obliged
to disclose our age.

I just applied for a job through an agency and they are saying the following:-

"Due to changes in the law, we are now legally required to be able to prove that the candidates we put forward for roles are eligible to work in the UK. To do this we ask all candidates to provide us with a copy of the front cover and information page of their passport to keep on file"

If I do this, I will be giving my age. Does anyone know the answer?

Thanks