About the job

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Legal Services Senior Policy Adviser - International Trade or Regulation roles (up to 2 posts available)

SEO

Judicial and Legal Services Policy Directorate

The Judicial and Legal Services Directorate is recruiting permanently for two Legal Services Senior Policy Advisers (SEO grade). This campaign is being run externally and so is open to all who consider themselves suitable for the roles and meet the eligibility criteria in the wider advert within Civil Service Jobs.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

1. 102 Petty France, London
2. 5 Wellington Place, Leeds

Occasional travel between the two locations may be required.

In order for Policy Group to meet its evolving business needs all Policy Group staff are expected to attend their base location (102 Petty France or 5 Wellington Place Leeds) at least 2 days a week.  This hybrid working arrangement is not contractual and as a result staff could be asked to attend their base location more frequently.

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share
• Flexible working patterns
• Flexible working arrangements between base locations, MoJ Hubs and home.

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service will be expected to join on the minimum of the pay range. 

If you are already a civil servant and are successful in an external recruitment competition for a role with us, your starting pay will be the better of:

• promotion terms or transfer terms, as appropriate; or
• pay on appointment arrangements (minimum of pay range)

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

The Work of Legal Services Policy

Legal services are a strong contributor to the economy and have a strong record of growth, as well as playing a vital role in facilitating global trade and investment - the sector generated revenue of over £30.7bn in 2021. The UK’s position in legal services is helped by the international prestige of English ad Welsh law, and London’s position as a global centre for dispute resolution. 

The Legal Services Policy division plays a central role in the Government’s work ensuring UK legal services, courts and English and Welsh law remain world-leading. As such, the division is responsible for the legal services’ regulatory framework in England and Wales and works to deliver the MOJ’s objective of supporting a flourishing independent legal services sector. Equally importantly, the division leads the development and delivery of the Department’s legal services policy objectives in the context of HMG’s trade strategy and negotiations with key trade partners.

Legal Services Senior Policy Adviser - the roles

Legal Services Trade Sanctions Policy

The role in the Legal Services Trade team will be based in the regional Europe team. In the aftermath of the illegal attack on Ukraine by the Russian government, the Ministry of Justice has developed a high-profile programme of work focused on feeding into cross-government work on sanctions. The post holder will be responsible for driving this critical work forward.

Examples of the type of work you could be doing include:

• Driving forward the implementation of sanctions legislation regarding legal advisory services
• Being the key point of contact for engagement with cross Whitehall colleagues and external stakeholders on the aims and deliverables of our sanction's regime.
• Responsibility for assessing licence applications which have real life impact for end users.
• Communicating and representing the MoJ at cross departmental discussions on sanctions compliance enforcement.

You will need to work confidently with colleagues across the department (both legal and analytical colleagues) and Whitehall (in particular DBT and FCDO), and with external stakeholders (including the legal sector) to develop and advance the department’s legal services sanctions objectives.

Legal Services Regulation Policy

This is an exciting role which will sit in the Legal Services Regulation team. The team is responsible for issues relating to the legal services sector and regulation, and works closely with senior stakeholders across the legal sector on a wide range of issues.

Recent work has included:

• the introduction of four legal services measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, to improve legal services regulators’ ability to promote compliance with the wider economic crime regime;
• exploring ways to diversify the legal services sector and make it more accessible to those from non-traditional backgrounds;
• the de-designation of the ACCA as a legal services regulator.

Responsibilities will include:

• Working on both primary and secondary legislation;
• Developing policy and strategy on a wide variety of issues, at pace, primarily relating to the legal regulatory framework;
• Managing relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including the Legal Services Board, Law Society and Bar Council, working across MoJ to ensure an effective and consistent approach;
• Delivering high-quality advice and briefings for Ministers, and drafting correspondence;
• Line management responsibilities.

The roles offer an excellent opportunity for high performing, self-motivated policy professionals to lead exciting and challenging programmes of work. These are interesting, fast-moving and varied roles, which will give successful candidates a wide range of policy experience, and opportunities to demonstrate and develop their skills and professional expertise.

Skills and Experience

You are required to have:

Essential:

• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills and the ability to build relationships quickly across Government and externally.
• Demonstrable capability for strategic thinking and policy development, and ability to make sound judgements.
• The ability to provide clear, evidenced briefing in both written and oral formats on complex policy areas to senior stakeholders and Ministers.
• Strong prioritisation skills and the ability to make effective decisions on how to make best use of your resources to handle time-sensitive work to achieve both short and long-term results. 

Desirable:

For the Legal Services Trade team:

• An understanding of the justice system and legal services sector.
• Previous experience of working with the legal services sector and/or similar professional business and services sector.
• Experience working on sanctions policy or similar.
• Existing SC clearance is desirable but not essential. If successful, the candidate must be willing to undertake SC level clearance for the trade sanctions policy role.

For the Legal Services Regulation team:

• An understanding of the justice system and the legal services regulatory framework.
• Previous experience developing and/or delivering new policies.
• Previous experience of working with the legal services sector and/or similar professional business and services sector.
• Line management experience or experience of developing/coaching colleagues.

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviour (see Annex A for more information):

• Making effective decisions (lead behaviour)
• Communicating and influencing
• Working together
• Delivering at pace

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Making effective decisions Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

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

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.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details:  Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

You will also undertake a short-written exercise, the details of which will provided to those candidates successful at the sift stage.

Interviews are expected to take place in March 2024.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the roles or what it is like working in our teams – Laurene Rousseau (Laurene.Rousseau@justice.gov.uk) for the regulation role, or Amy Saunders (Amy.Saunders@justice.gov.uk) for the trade role.

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?
• Who was there with you?
• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?
• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I” rather than “we” to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?
• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?
• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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.