Job applicants will have the right to demand a copy of the employer's notes of interviews under a new code coming into force early next year, the Financial Times has reported.
The newspaper said lawyers had warned that some employers could face potential legal claims, as well as embarrassment.
Employers will be able to charge up to £10 per copy but will be liable to criminal sanctions if they refuse access.
According to the FT, the right of access is enshrined in the revised version of a code due to be issued early next year by the Office of the Information Commissioner, the data protection watchdog.
It states that "applicants will be entitled to receive access to interview notes, presuming they contain personal data which relate to them".
The code will be the commissioner's blueprint for enforcing the Data Protection Act against employers, the FT said. Employers that breach the act are committing a criminal offence and can be sued for damages.
The code - which covers employers' responsibilities for recruitment and selection - has been sent for a "final pre-publication check" to a handful of organisations, the newspaper said.
David Smith, deputy information commissioner, said yesterday this "final check" would not alter the substance of the code "unless people convince us we are misrepresenting the legal position, which we don't think we are".
Mr Smith confirmed that virtually all notes of job interviews - including, for example, handwritten comments scribbled in the margin of interviewees' CVs - would be open to access by applicants.
Disappointed job applicants who bring discrimination claims can already gain access to interview notes. But very few candidates resort to litigation.
The FT said the automatic right of access is expected to increase significantly the number of people demanding to see their notes - some purely out of curiosity - which could in turn trigger more claims.
