About the job

Job summary

We have approximately 140 Advisory and Forensic Accountants within HMRC and by joining us you will be able to support HMRC’s drive to tackle fraud and tax evasion, whilst making a positive difference to the nation’s finances. You will play an active role in high-profile issues and ultimately your work will touch the lives of everyone in the UK.

These are accountancy roles with your work principally supporting the Fraud Investigation Service (FIS) directorate which is responsible for both civil and criminal investigations in tackling the most serious tax evasion and fraud.

New Entrants to the Civil Service will join on the entry point stated, transferees from OGD need to read the guidance on how their pay will be calculated.

See what it’s like to work at HMRC: find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.

Job description

As a Senior Officer Forensic Accountant, you will work in partnership with a Grade 7 Forensic Accountant (the lead accountant), to give objective, independent and professional advice relating to criminal investigations and anti-money laundering interventions.

You will utilise your accounting knowledge and commercial experience to review and analyse the available financial evidence on each case, and summarise your findings to aid the lead accountant in reaching their expert opinion.

You will communicate with the lead accountant to ensure Court deadlines are met, and act as a point of contact to case teams in providing objective and independent accounting advice, tailored appropriately to your audience.

You will use strong report writing skills to drafting sections of the case output and might be called upon to act as a witness of fact in court to address such sections.

As you gain experience, you will be expected to take on the role of lead accountant for smaller cases to further your own growth and development.

We will support you in your role with high quality Continuous Professional Development, including accountancy, Criminal Procedure Rules, and court room skills.

Our team is passionate about career development and presently offers a “Grade SO Talent Programme” to inspire, support and recognise talented individuals who wish to progress to a Grade 7 role within HMRC’s Advisory and Forensic Accountants’ profession.

We embrace flexible working and enabling our forensic accountants to maintain a work-life balance.

Person specification

The candidate will have financial accounting experience gained in either practice, industry, public sector, or private sector and specifically including:

• Analysing and interpreting a range of financial records.
  
• Preparing or reviewing financial statements.
  
• Considering the appropriate accounting treatment of a variety of specific transactions; and
  
• Delivering high quality written and verbal accountancy outputs to key stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

• Communicate with the lead accountant on a timely basis and regularly liaise with case teams to provide independent and objective accounting advice.
  
• Perform a complete, accurate and reliable analysis of the available financial information to an evidential standard for each case.
  
• With the lead accountant, consider, discuss, and interpret your analysis.
  
• Succinctly present your findings to the lead accountant. Where required, draft sections within a Forensic Accountant case output ensuring your findings are clear and can be easily understood by case teams, a judge, or a jury.
  
• Be a visible leader in your regional centre, including being a specific point of contact for case teams.
  
• Demonstrate strong organisational skills to adhere to criminal disclosure requirements.
  
• Prioritise and manage the workload of multiple cases at once.
  
• Complete independent learning for case specific topics and engage with CPD events.
  
• Develop and deliver bespoke training to help up skill accountancy colleagues as well as case workers and investigators.
  
• Develop a strong rapport with colleagues and share knowledge and skills.
  
• Adhere to your accountancy body’s code of ethics, showing integrity, objectivity, confidentiality, professional competence and due care, and professional behaviour on a continual basis.

Essential Criteria:

Full and complete qualification from, and continuing membership of, one of the following professional accounting bodies:

• The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
  
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS).
  
• Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI).
  
• The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
  
• The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).
  
• The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Please Note: Part qualified accountants are not eligible to apply for these posts.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Find more about HMRC benefits in 'Your little extras and big benefits handbook' for further information or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

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

All Criminal Record Checks applications are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a name blind CV and a 500-word Personal Statement.

Your CV should detail your job history, skills and experience. Please ensure this includes information showing how you meet the person specification. We recommend that your CV is no longer than 500 words. It should detail your job history (with dates), skills and experience (please provide a summary of each role and elements of the person specification). Please include your qualification and membership in the qualifications section and/or CV.

Be concise and relevant – bullet point format is acceptable. Your CV will be scored.

Your Personal Statement should be used to to explain why you want the role and what you will bring to the role. This should include examples of how you meet the person specification (although you do not need to cover all of the person specification for this role) and how your experience matches the roles and responsibilities outlined in the job description).

We will assess you against these behaviours at the interview stage of the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

A preliminary sift on the Essential Criteria will be conducted and only candidates meeting the criteria will progress to a full sift where the sift will be carried out against your CV and Personal Statement with the successful candidates being invited to interview.

If you are successful at sift, you will be invited to a technical interview which involves an accountancy based technical test (to include both a presentation and a written output) – unless you have an exemption.

Technical tests are expected to take place from January 2024 due to Christmas holidays.

Please note that we are also currently recruiting for other HMRC Advisory and Forensic Accountancy roles – if you choose to apply for other roles, you are only required to sit the technical test once.

If you are successful at this stage then you will be invited to a second interview. This will include:

Strength based questions
Questions seeking examples of the selected behaviours 'Delivering at Pace' and ‘Communicating and Influencing’

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of, and you will be asked strength-based questions to also explore what you enjoy and your motivations relevant to the job role.

We will assess you against these behaviours during the interview process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

This is an example of a strengths-based question:

“It is often said that the customer's needs should come first. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?”

There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

The interview will include an accountancy based technical test (to include both a presentation and a written output).

If invited to interview, you will need access to the financial accounting standards in order to sit the presentation part of the technical test. These are available online. Please make sure you can access the following links: 

UK GAAP accounting standard FRS102

https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/0fba8b6a-ff2b-46e2-8c3f-adfc174d300b/FRS-102-(January-2022)(2).pdf

International Accounting Standards, register for free to gain access.

https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/list-of-standards/

Full details will be provided to those candidates invited to interview.

Technical test exemption:

You may be eligible for an exemption from sitting a technical test as part of the interview process for this post if you demonstrate you fulfil one of the following criteria:

1) You are a current member of the Advisory and Forensic Accountant's Profession and previously passed the technical test at Grade 7 level.
2) You were, within the last 3 years (from the closing date of the advert you are applying for) a member of the Advisory and Forensic Accountants Profession and previously passed the technical test at Grade 7 level.
3) You successfully passed the Grade 7 technical test in the last 3 years as part of a previous HMRC Advisory and Forensic Accountants recruitment campaign or the SO Talent Programme. You should submit proof that you previously passed the technical test, this may be in the form of written interview feedback you received or confirmation information from Civil Service Jobs.

If you are seeking an exemption under criteria 2 or 3 above, you are also required to demonstrate that 20 hours of accountancy-related CPD has been undertaken on an annual basis (since you left the AFA Profession, or since you passed the Grade 7 technical test)
If you pass sift, and believe you have a technical test exemption, you will be asked to send the details to a central mailbox at that time.

We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process in order to manage numbers.

Interviews will take place via video link.

Sift will be week commencing 8th January 2024; Interview dates to be confirmed.

A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.

After interview, merit lists will be created for each location advertised within the vacancy. If you are successful at interview, you will be placed on the merit list for any locations you have expressed an interest for. Appointments from each merit list will be made in strict merit order.

Eligibility

To check that you are eligible to apply, review this eligibility information

Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:

This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need, so please review the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the ‘location preferences’ section that you are able to travel to.  

Reasonable Adjustments 

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition, or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate. 

If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, review this information on reasonable adjustments, and contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.

Diversity and Inclusion

At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues and creating an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We’re committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC. We want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential at HMRC.

For more information on how we make this happen, review this information on our culture and values

Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible after considering operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.

Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process. 

The Civil Service runs 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. 

Locations 

HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.

Security Update

For more information on the level of security checks we will carry out, review this information on security checks

Please note: in addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, all candidates must also obtain National Security Vetting at Security Check (SC) clearance level for this vacancy. You will normally need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of vetting being undertaken, which for SC is 5 years UK residency prior to your vetting application. If you have any questions about this residency requirement, please speak to the vacancy holder for this post.

Further Information

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.

Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application/s will be withdrawn from the process. 

Duplicate applications for the same vacancy will also be withdrawn.

Transferring into HMRC from Civil Service If you are currently working for an ‘Other Government Department’ (OGD) and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document "Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”, found at the bottom of this advert. Further information on staff transfers can be found on gov.uk

Problems during the application process 

If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. 

If you think you’ve made a mistake on a short application form (e.g. you’ve ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact hmrcrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we won’t be able to reopen your application.   

Please use the subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application - 329079 & vacancy closing date 05/01/24. Please note that we cannot amend or re-open your application if you have submitted your full application in the interests of fair and open recruitment.

For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details within reasonable adjustments section above.

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.