About the job

Job summary

The AGO is a ministerial department serving the Attorney General and the Solicitor General (the Law Officers).  The Law Officers are the Government’s chief legal advisers.

The Law Officers make important decisions that affect public life. Among other things, they decide whether to send criminal sentences that may be too low to the Court of Appeal; whether to open inquests into deaths (for example, the Attorney General made the decision to open new inquests into the deaths at Hillsborough); are the Government’s chief legal advisors, providing advice to both the Prime Minister and Secretaries of State on a range of pressing issues touching on every aspect of daily life in the UK; and they represent the Crown Prosecution Service and Serious Fraud Office in Parliament.

 

The Office comprises around 63 multidisciplinary, engaged and high performing team members advising and supporting the Law Officers in all aspects of their work.  We pride ourselves on our problem-solving creativity, sophisticated political and handling awareness, and smart ways of working. 

The Law Officers also work alongside the Justice Secretary and Home Secretary to provide a more efficient, effective, and accountable criminal justice system for victims and the public.

The AGO comprises a high-performing, multi-disciplinary, engaged, and resilient team that prides itself on our:

• legal professional excellence and creativity;
• role and reputation;
• team spirit, ethos, and values; and
• individual development and wellbeing.

While the workload can be demanding and there may be times of pressure, the AGO is committed to staff wellbeing and ensuring colleagues have all the support and resources they need to succeed and ensuring our staff maintain a healthy work-life balance. AGO operates a hybrid working policy where there is a requirement 60% office attendance.

AGO supports the Civil Service vision of being recognised as the UK’s most inclusive employer, by setting stretching diversity and equality objectives for our organisation.

AGO is an employer which promotes equality and aims to reflect the diversity of the society in which we live. It is committed to maximising the skills and potential of all its staff. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons irrespective of disability, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital status or religion/belief.

Further information about the work of the Law Officers and the Office can be found at www.gov.uk/ago

Job description

The successful candidate will join a highly efficient Correspondence team that makes up part of the Corporate Services Team.

The Correspondence Team is responsible for the full facilitation of incoming and outgoing departmental correspondence from members of the public, other government departments and politicians and is responsible for managing the Public Enquiries line.  

The successful candidate will also facilitate and manage processes relating to statutory requests for information including Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests, Subject Access Requests (SAR) and ICO Complaints, liaising with AGO officials. It is a central part of the AGO, and we are looking for a motivated and high performing professional to join the team and deliver excellent customer service. 

The successful candidate will also be responsible for direct Line Management of an AO (Apprentice).

Person specification

Main Responsibilities:

• Managing and screening all incoming and outgoing correspondence to the office (electronic and post).
• Managing and answering calls to the Public Enquiries line.
• Handling complaints in line with the AGO complaints process.
• Managing processes relating to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests (including internal reviews and Subject Access Requests (SARs) in line with statutory processes and ensuring these are undertaken within deadlines.
• The job holder will be responsible for ensuring that they share and capture their personal knowledge/skills/expertise across the AGO, by adhering to the file storage and retention policy as well as completion of Know-How guides, training and mentoring.
• The job-holder will assist and lead on information management of MP correspondence and FOIs for Cabinet Office published statistics.

The job holder will form a part of the Corporate Services Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) team, leading on and taking part in projects and other processes relating to data management.

Essential Criteria:

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills
• Able to prioritise workloads and have excellent time-management skills. 
  • Demonstrate the ability to adapt swiftly to important changes in the office and political environment.
  • Thorough basic knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Excel, Word.

The successful candidate will hold or be open to gaining Security Clearance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,199, Attorney General's Office contributes £7,883 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 Strengths.

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

Applicants must be able to demonstrate the following Success Profiles behaviours at G6 level of:

Behaviours (to be assessed at sift and at interview stages)

1. Making effective decisions – Lead behaviour
2. Seeing the big picture
3. Delivering at pace
4. Managing a quality service

Your application will be sifted by an AGO panel. In the event that we receive a high number of applications, an initial sift will be carried out on the lead behaviour: Making Effective Decisions. Applicants are also required to upload a CV no more than two A4 pages.

The AGO conducts name-blind recruitment. Before your application is passed to those sifting, your name and any references that would reveal your identity or gender will be redacted. Please assist us in this process by minimising such references in your application. You should also not include any details of your school or university in your application. 

Should you be successful in being invited to interview, you will be assessed on the behaviour and strength elements of the success profile framework.

Interviews for this vacancy will likely be held around w/c 17th January 2024 and will be conducted virtually.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.