UK Cover Letter: Format, Tone and Conventions

• Your details – name, phone, email, town, at the top, matched to the CV so the two documents look like a set.
• Date – written out in full, for example 24 October 2026.
• Recipient – name and job title if the advert gives them, otherwise Dear Hiring Manager. Company address only if you are posting it.
• Subject line – the job title and any reference number, in bold, so the letter reaches the right folder.
• Four short paragraphs – the role and where you saw it, the evidence, what you bring that the advert asks for, and a close.
• Sign-off – Yours sincerely when you have a name, Yours faithfully when you do not, then your name.
• Length – one page, never two, and no second page carrying only a signature.

Write as you would to a colleague you respect. Cut enthusiastic, passionate, dynamic and hard-working, and put a fact where the adjective was. British readers distrust a claim that arrives without evidence, so a line about cutting queue times does more than a paragraph about customer focus. Keep sentences short, use the active voice, and avoid American spellings and American punctuation habits. Do not open with a quotation, a dictionary definition or a statement about the company being a market leader; open with the role. One mild note of personality is welcome, a joke is not. If you have a gap, a name change or a relocation to explain, one sentence is enough, and the letter is a better place for it than the CV.

Paragraph one names the role, the reference and the source of the advert. Paragraph two takes the two or three requirements from the person specification and answers each with a result: a number of patients, orders, tickets or people, and the setting where the work happened. Paragraph three covers what is not on the CV, such as a relocation date, a notice period, a qualification in progress or availability for shifts. Paragraph four closes with a request for interview, a statement that you are available at short notice, and a thank you. Four paragraphs of three sentences each is a page. If the advert asks for a supporting statement instead of a letter, the same structure applies but the section titles must follow the criteria in order. Close with a specific next step rather than an open offer to talk, for example that you are free for interview on any day from the following week.

Send the letter as a PDF attached with the CV, or paste it into the body of an email when the portal allows only one upload, and keep the same font and title style as the CV. Do not repeat the CV line by line, do not mention salary unless the advert raises it, and do not address the letter to Dear Sir or Madam when a name is easy to find on the company site. A speculative letter is normal in the UK: name the kind of role you want, give one reason you are useful to that employer, and ask whether they would keep the CV on file. Follow up once, by email, about a week after the closing date, and then leave it. Keep every version so you can answer a question about what you sent.