About the job

Job summary

If you’re interested in making a difference to people’s lives, the Treasury can offer you an exciting opportunity to influence decision making that affects the whole of the UK. Working at the heart of government, we collaborate across government to promote responsible public spending and drive strong and sustainable economic growth.  

Our work ranges from protecting customers through the regulation of the financial sector, helping to reduce carbon emissions and creating a greener economy, to promoting British trade around the world and supporting people across the country on jobs, growth and more.  

We are part of the Darlington Economic Campus, a pioneering new cross-government hub which brings people together to play an active role in the most important issues of the day whilst working closer to the communities we serve. The campus provides the opportunity for people from all over the UK to help shape the future of the country, and our flexible working practices ensure you can collaborate effectively with our partners. It’s central government, made more accessible to you! 

Job description

Financial Services Group

The Financial Services Group advises the government on how to promote a stable and efficient financial services sector, to deliver excellent outcomes for consumers and business, enhance the UK’s position as a global hub for financial services and support economic growth across the country.

The financial services sector is important to the UK economy – providing significant numbers of jobs and making a large contribution to the UK’s economic output. It also provides essential services to individuals – for example, helping them to purchase goods with ease, buy their first home, and plan for their retirement. During the COVID pandemic, it played a critical role in supporting individuals and businesses – for example, in providing payment holidays for individuals and businesses affected by the pandemic and working with the government to deliver Bounce Back Loans.

We ensure that financial services businesses such as banks, investment firms, financial advisors and insurers are well-regulated. Ensuring firms treat customers fairly, customers have access to a range of financial services as a result of competition in the market, and there are appropriate remedies in place when things go wrong.

We work on a significant international agenda which includes promoting openness and trading links between the UK and countries all around the world, including through Free Trade Agreements and other international dialogues and negotiations.  To do this we work closely with colleagues in offices overseas from the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office and the Department for International Trade.

Working with stakeholders is key in Financial Services – for example, we work closely with the independent regulators to help them fulfil their roles, consult consumer groups on issues affecting them, and work with the sector on wider issues like the net-zero agenda.

About the Team

This role sits within the regulatory unit of the insurance team. The UK has one of the most vibrant and innovative insurance sectors in the world and is a leader in complex and bespoke provisions of insurance. The sector is a crucial part of our economy, managing £1.8 trillion in investment, amounting to the equivalent of 25% of the UK’s total net worth.

As the insurance team, we are responsible for enabling the growth and competitiveness of the UK’s insurance sector, stimulating innovation, and maximising the benefit of insurance companies’ investments in the UK while preserving market stability and safety for policyholders.

As the regulatory unit, we are responsible for the sound regulation of this sector. This involves working to establish the balance in regulation between enabling and promoting growth while ensuring that the market remains stable and protects policyholders from market-wide shocks. A key aspect of this is prudential regulation; ensuring that firms’ hold enough capital to protect their policyholders and survive a 1-in-200-year economic shock, while also enabling sound investments to drive productive growth in the UK.   

About the Job

You will join the regulatory branch. We are currently reforming how insurers are regulated to incentivise productive investment in the UK economy and spur an internationally competitive insurance sector, while retaining high standards of policyholder of protection. This is one the landmark economic reforms of the Government, which industry have estimated could result in £100 billion in investment over the next ten years in the UK.  

On joining the team, you will have the chance work at the centre of these reforms, bringing legislation forward and through both Houses of Parliament and ensuring that the Prudential Regulation Authority, the regulator for insurance firms, has developed a rulebook better suited to the UK insurance market. In doing this, you will work across Government, with the Prudential Regulation Authority and with key industry players like the Association of British Insurers, Legal & General, Aviva, Phoenix and Lloyd’s of London.

You will also collaborate with those same, to ensure that the benefits of the reforms are realised and react to developments in the insurance market, both opportunities and risks. You will reach across HMG, leading the conversation within Government, alongside engaging and developing policy with experts in the regulator and in industry. From this you will be able to develop recommendations for reform, compromise or novel solutions, utilising this to influence the decisions governing one of the most crucial sections of the UK’s economy.

You don’t need to be a policy professional or have any specific qualifications to apply to work as a Policy Adviser at HM Treasury. We are looking for people who have the right set of skills for the role, who demonstrate the values of HM Treasury and the Civil Service, and who are motivated to come and work with us on a range of issues that are at the heart of how we spend money and deliver public services.

Key Accountabilities for this role include:

1. Reform of the regulation of the insurance sector.  You will work to help reform to the regulation of the insurance sector through becoming HMT’s subject-matter expert on key aspects of the insurance regime and work across Government to examine proposals for reform and develop your own. This is one of the highest profile reforms among the suite of ambitious reforms to the regulation of financial services. 
2. Implement crucial legislative reform. You will work with Treasury Legal Advisors to ensure that reforms to the regulation of the insurance sector are accurately translated into legal form, leading the delivery of reforms into the statute book and developing the associated products to ensure its smooth delivery. This will require, and help you enhance, crucial project management skills.
3. Influence a wide variety of high profile stakeholders and manage the polarised positions that can sometimes develop between industry and the regulators to secure a mutually acceptable and deliverable common ground. You will maintain relationships with the insurance sector, financial regulators, and across Government, to develop insurance policy.
4. Engage with ministers and senior officials on a subject which is high profile, on which they have strong opinions and in which there is media interest. You will prepare briefings for ministers and senior officials to assist them in achieving insurance policy objectives, especially in relation to the passage of the statutory instruments that effect reform of the regulation of the insurance sector.
5. Credibly represent HMT in meetings with regulators and the insurance sector.  Policy relating to the regulation of the insurance sector is developed and enhanced in meetings with key stakeholders.  You will have the opportunity to develop core skills in this area by representing HMT in high profile meetings with important stakeholders to help influence stakeholders, find common ground between industry and the regulator, and understand and share key insights to progress the aims of Government.

You will also manage correspondence and questions from MPs, peers and the wider public and prepare briefings including for ministers’ attendance at high-level industry meetings, Treasury Orals and Select Committee hearings.

Candidate Drop-In Session 
 
The hiring manager will be running a candidate drop-in session for this role to give you greater insight about the role as well as the chance to learn more about HM Treasury and ask any questions you may have. If you would like to join us, then use the appropriate link below to join the call at the right time. 

17th June 2024 15:00-16:00 Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 364 657 723 407

Passcode: b5Z6vm

If you would like to speak to the hiring manager informally prior to the closing date for applications to find out more about the job, please contact joe.jones@hmtreasury.gov.uk

Person specification

We are looking for the below skills, experience and behaviours and we will ask you to demonstrate these in your application form. Please review the Candidate FAQ document that is attached to the advert for guidance on how to complete your application form.  

1. Working together: This role will require cooperation across a wide variety of stakeholders on high profile and sometimes contentious issues. Please provide an example of when you have brought together a range of people to deliver on a common goal.
2. Making Effective Decisions: This role will require delivering robust advice assembled from a range of credible sources to support seniors. Please give an example of where you have developed and delivered an assessment to a more senior audience.
3. Delivering at Pace: This role will involve delivering a range of projects over different timeframes. Please provide an example of when you have delivered a long-term project against conflicting deadlines.
4. Communicating and influencing: This role will involve unpacking complex and highly technical information for seniors and external stakeholders. Please provide an example of when you have had to deliver a technical message to an audience unfamiliar with the subject.

The lead criterion is: Working Together

If we receive large volumes of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criterion only.

Candidate Guidance Support Session

We will be running an overview of Success Profiles and the STAR approach including top tips for the application and interview process and an opportunity to ask general questions around our recruitment practices. Please note that this session is not role specific, so we will be unable to answer specific questions about roles we are advertising. If you would like to join us, please use the link below to join the call at the right time.

19th June 2024 12:30 – 13:15 Join the meeting now

Meeting ID: 387 769 169 056

Passcode: ebj8wo

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,500, HM Treasury contributes £10,665 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.

Recruitment Timeline 

• Closing date: 30th June 2024.
• Shortlisting: W/C 1st July 2024
• Interviews:  W/C 15th July 2024

This timeline is indicative and may be subject to change. We will inform you if there is a substantial change to the recruitment timeline. 

If your contact details change at any time during the selection process, please ensure you update your Civil Service Jobs Profile. 

Please note that only applications submitted through Civil Service Jobs will be accepted.

Location-Based Reserve Lists 

You will be placed on a reserve list if your application is successful, but we cannot offer you a post immediately. Where more than one location has been advertised, candidates will be approached for roles in merit order according to the first preferred location stated on your application form. 

Please note that a place on the reserve list does not guarantee an offer. We would still encourage you to apply for other HM Treasury opportunities that you are interested in. If you are offered a role in your first preferred location and you decline the offer or you are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe, you will be removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances. 

Eligibility Statement  

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role in the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. Checks will be performed as part of pre-employment checks in line with this. Please refer to the Candidate FAQ document attached to the advert for more information. 

Everyone working with government assets must complete Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks. Additionally, individuals appointed to the Treasury group will be subject to National Security Vetting. The level of security vetting required for this role is Counter Terrorist Check (CTC).  

To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, applicants will need to have lived in the UK for at least 3 out of the past 5 years. In exceptional circumstances, a lack of residency would not be a bar to security clearance however the Department will need to consider eligibility on a case by case basis once the advert closing date has passed. Please read the Vetting Charter for information on what to expect during the vetting process and what will be expected from you.  Many areas of your life may be explored during your vetting journey, and it is important that every individual, regardless of their background and experiences, should feel comfortable going through this personal process, whilst having confidence that it is fair, proportionate, and inclusive.  

These short videos address common concerns and preconceptions which applicants may have about national security vetting.  If you have questions relating to security clearances, please contact HMTSecurityVetting@hmtreasury.gov.uk

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist 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.