About the job

Job summary

The Civil Service embraces equality, diversity, and inclusion. At HSE, your personal qualities are as important as your professional experience. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and all walks of life.

Our approach is to recruit “on merit on the basis of fair and open competition”, in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. As such, our thorough selection process ensures that you and every other candidate receive equal and fair treatment.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is recruiting an Advisory Lawyer to join the Legal Services Division’s expanding team working on the Building Safety Regulator function of HSE. 

Following Dame Judith Hackitt’s Building a Safer Future Report, the Building Safety Act 2022 created the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) as part of HSE, alongside new powers and responsibilities. There are two main operational areas within BSR. The regulation of Higher Risk Buildings  and the regulation of the Building Control Profession. Both areas require legal advice and assistance to support decision making and formal legal action in courts and tribunals, including prosecution for non-compliance with regulatory standards and in relation to incidents.

Job description

The work of the BSR legal team is wide ranging, interesting and challenging. It encompasses criminal and civil proceedings, appeals against civil sanctions in the context of regulation of the building control profession, and supporting BSR’s role as a statutory consultee in planning applications and Inquiries. BSR is playing a key role in HSE’s work to ensure people feel safe where they live, where they work, and in the built environment.

Responsibilities:

• Provide legal advice to the organisation on the regulatory framework for the BSR on a wide range of topics, including operational and policy issues
• Handle your own caseload of enforcement cases, providing advice on investigations, making the decisions to proceed and conducting any resulting court proceedings (civil and criminal)
• Respond to appeals (in the First Tier Tribunal) against enforcement notices issued by the BSR.
• Work with senior legal, operational and policy colleagues to implement and manage the enforcement of the BSR regime and contribute to shaping and designing new processes to support collaborative working
• Contribute to work with legal professionals in the Government Legal Department on wider policy aspects of the BSR
• Contribute to the devising and delivery of relevant legal training and the delivery of written legal guidance on the BSR’s remit
• Contribute to delivering the Legal Services Division’s HSE wide corporate objectives

Person specification

You will have:

• Well-developed legal skills, together with strong analytical skills and sound practical judgement
• An ability to communicate in a clear, effective and influential manner
• The ability to pro-actively manage a caseload comprising advisory work, prosecutions and regulatory appeals and balance that with other responsibilities within the team
• An ability to adapt to change necessitated by new working practices
• An ability to build, maintain and manage relationships with internal and external stakeholders and other regulators
• An ability to quickly assimilate new areas of law with a keen interest in expanding your legal knowledge and skills
• A good, flexible team player who can deliver work to a tight timescale and who is capable of managing situations to get the best results from the resources available.

You will likely have gained your skills in Regulatory law and practice. 

We recognise that applicants who currently have limited experience of regulatory proceedings may well be able to demonstrate the skills and experience necessary for this role along with an ability to quickly assimilate in regulatory practice with appropriate support. To that end, we encourage applications from candidates who have experience in any of the following areas: 

• Public law
• Landlord and tenant law
• Proceedings before the First Tier Tribunal
• Planning law

Working Pattern

Part time working hours are available for this role. We can accept part time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 0.6 FTE (22.2 hours) per week. HSE offer a flexible approach to working hours, therefore, we would be open to explore a suitable pattern should a part time person be successful.

Hybrid Working

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Travel 

For all colleagues, there will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities including collaborative working and involvement with supporting and training colleagues.

This post will require occasional travel to HSE’s headquarters in Bootle and other HSE offices, as well as occasional attendance at courts, case conferences and meetings nationwide. This may involve overnight stays. This aspect of the work can usually be planned in advance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,566, Health and Safety Executive contributes £15,542 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

Application Information
As part of your application, you will be asked to complete:

• A CV section in which you are required to provide details regarding your employment history and qualification details.

• A Personal Statement of up to 750 words setting out how you consider that your skills meet the person specification and your motivation for applying:

1. Your legal skills (500 words), and 
2. Why you are interested in the post (250 words)

• You will also be required to submit a further 250-word example which addresses the following lead behaviour for this role: Communicating and Influencing.

Application Guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a Personal Statement https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/how-to-apply/

The panel will assess your application at sift stage by considering your CV and Personal Statement as well as the Behaviour example provided.  If you do not address any or all of the criteria it may affect your application.

Both the legal skills section of your Personal Statement and your example of Communicating and Influencing will be used to assess whether you have the relevant skills, experience and abilities for the role. Any examples given should be concise and specific. You can include relevant skills, knowledge and experience gained via study, community or voluntary work, or other experience, in addition to paid work.

When providing examples, you may want to use the STAR approach, outlining the situation, the task, the action you took and the result.  Avoid generic statements such as ‘I am good at working with others’. We need specific evidence to show how you demonstrate the specific Behaviour.

Sift Information

The sift is due to take place during the week commencing 7th May 2024. You will be assessed on your CV, Personal Statement and the Behaviour 'Communicating and Influencing'. 

Please note your CV and Personal Statement will be assessed together and so you will receive a combined score.

In the event of a high number of applications at sift, we will sift on the lead Behaviour 'Communicating and Influencing' only. 

Interview Information

Candidates who are successful at sift and reach interview stage will be assessed on the following four Behaviours listed in this advert. Interviews will be conducted remotely via Microsoft Teams. We aim to conduct interviews during the weeks commencing 13th and 20th May 2024.

Please note the dates for sift and interview may be subject to change due to panel availability.

AI Tools & Platforms

During the application process candidates are allowed to utilise AI (artificial intelligence) platforms and Tools to support them in writing their Behaviours, CV’s and Personal Statements. However, all information submitted must be factually accurate. This includes experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. All presented information will be assessed at the Interview Stage.

Sponsorship

This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.

Further Information

Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application.

For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.

Any move to HSE from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at Childcare Choices , 30 Hours Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More , Help with Costs , GOV.UK

HSE is proud to be a part of the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS). As a Disability Confident employer, we positively welcome applications from disabled people. We are committed to making workplace adjustments to ensure anyone can participate in the recruitment and selection process.

We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for all disabled applicants who provide evidence of meeting the minimum requirements necessary for the post. If, during the application or interview process, you require any assistance due to a disability or a medical condition, please contact us at the email address below to discuss how we can support you. If successful in securing your role, HSE can provide suitable workplace adjustments to support you throughout your career with HSE.

If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.