26.04 G7 Lawyer

Disclosure & Barring Service

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 3 weeks

Legal

Flexible

£60,380 - £64,882 per year

Job summary

DBS has its own growing in-house legal team. This currently consists of 22 members of staff, including 10 qualified lawyers (solicitors and a barrister). The team supports DBS across all its key strategic outputs and delivers a full in-house legal service. This broad range of legal work includes the following:

• Barring appeals litigation in the Upper Tribunal
• Public law matters, including in-house advisory work and judicial review
• Civil litigation
• Operational and policy advice
• GDPR / Data Protection and Freedom of Information matters
• Commercial projects and disputes
• Corporate governance
• Employment matters

We are looking for a capable and experienced lawyer (either a qualified solicitor or barrister) with the ability to support DBS with its casework of barring appeals, in addition to generalist public sector legal advisory casework.

If you are ready for a new challenge, have an enthusiastic approach and enjoy working collaboratively with colleagues within the legal team and across the wider organisation, then we would be delighted to hear from you.

Job description

DBS has a number of Strategic Priorities:

Provide high quality, reliable, consistent, timely and accessible services for our customers.
Embrace technology to drive improvements to the quality of our work.
Develop a talented and diverse workforce that understands how their contributions help to achieve our objectives.
Build a flexible, vibrant and contemporary workplace where our staff will be able to do their jobs using modern ways of working that are smart and which promote OneDBS.
Raise awareness of the DBS and the services we offer, keeping people informed through our communications, to increase public understanding and confidence in our organisation.
Be a respected and trusted organisation, working with our partners to play an influential role in the environment in which we operate.

As a lawyer within our Legal Services Team,you will specialise in barring appeals, but will be expected to develop your legal knowledge to support the business as a whole. You will undertake a broad range of work, including:

Managing a varied caseload of Upper Tribunal appeals against barring decisions and other litigation, often involving sensitive subject matter from the family courts' jurisdiction
Providing advice in relation to other areas of work dealt with by the Legal Services Team, in particular providing generalist in-house legal advice to the wider organisation, e.g. in relation to public law matters, information law.
Advising and supporting the conduct of civil litigation
Instructing and managing external law firms and counsel
Providing legal training to colleagues
Developing expertise in new areas of law relevant to the DBS
Supervising paralegals and administrative staff
Advising and supporting in relation to internal and external governance
Building relationships with DBS colleagues to encourage early engagement of the Legal Services Team in projects and plans
Working with and building relationships with colleagues in the wider public sector, e.g. GLD and Home Office
Supporting the development and implementation of DBS policies and guidance

Resources

In addition to peer support from other qualified lawyers in the team, the job holder will have valuable support from paralegals and administrative colleagues.

Members of the team have access to extensive online legal research resources and access to learning through DBS' learning portal.

Accountability

The Job holder will report directly to a G6 lawyer within the team.

Other Information

This role will involve occasional travel, including overnight stays, to courts and tribunals and between the two DBS sites.

Person specification

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

Experience/Ability

Significant demonstrable experience of public law in a regulatory enforcement/litigation/ professional discipline context (obtained in private practice or in-house) with experience of managing and conducting litigation
Experience of advising a public body and understanding of the wider public-sector context
Highly organised and able to plan and manage a broad portfolio of in-house legal work
Ability to advise in other areas of law relevant to DBS as and when required
Reliable legal judgement and appreciation of legal risk
Strategic and creative thinker, able to see legal issues in their wider context, and advise accordingly
Legal research skills to produce timely, solution-focused advice
Excellent communications skills, experienced and able to communicate advice effectively both in writing and orally

Technical

A lawyer (solicitor or barrister) qualified to practise in England and Wales with minimum 5 years post qualification experience gained in a similar role or sector

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

Experience/Ability

Previous experience working as an in-house lawyer, particularly in the public sector or for a non-departmental public body or local authority
Experience of managing instructions to external law firms and counsel
Capable of working on casework independently but within a supportive team environment

Licences

A Practising Certificate is required for this position - do you currently have a Practising Certificate in place, or are you able to obtain a valid Practising Certificate within 3 months of the advert closing date?

Qualifications

A lawyer (solicitor or barrister) qualified to practise in England and Wales with minimum 5 years post qualification experience gained in a similar role or sector

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Making Effective Decisions
Communicating and Influencing
Working Together
Developing Self and Others
Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,380, Disclosure & Barring Service contributes £17,492 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The DBS offers a number of excellent benefits for its employees. These can include:

Generous annual leave entitlement
Excellent maternity, paternity and adoption schemes (after a qualifying period)
Commitment to the health and wellbeing of our employees
Employee Assistance Programme
Flexible working opportunities
Eyecare voucher scheme
Occupational Health Service including referrals for counselling and physiotherapy
24/7 Counselling and Wellbeing Service
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

The DBS vision and purpose is to make people safer by being a visible, trusted and influential organisation, providing an outstanding quality of service to all our customers and partners, where our people understand the important safeguarding contributions they make and feel proud to work here. To do this, the DBS is committed to being an employer that is able to attract, develop, retain and engage diverse talent that is representative of the communities we serve, and to be an organisation providing outstanding service to all our existing and new customers, who are diverse and have a range of different needs. We want all our staff to be able to bring their ‘whole self’ to work.

Further Information:

To view the DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice, please click the link below:

DBS Recruitment and On-boarding Privacy Notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

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

To apply for this role, please provide a CV together with a personal statement of not more than 1000 words, outlining how your skills, experience and qualifications meet the requirements of the role, including all essential and desirable criteria and the key responsibilities in the job description. In addition to this you will also be required to provide behavioural examples within your application for:-

Making Effective Decisions
Communicating & Influencing
Working Together
Developing Self & Others
Delivering at Pace

Should there be a large number of applications, the sift will initially be conducted on the CV and personal statement and the lead behaviour, Making Effective Decisions.

For all candidates who are successful at the initial sifting stage, you will be invited to attend a face to face panel interview process which will be separated into two parts.

Part 1: Practical Exercise which you will be required to complete under timed supervision, prior to your interview. Details of the exercise will only be provided at this stage. This will be measured against some elements of the essential criteria.

Part 2: Behaviour based face to face panel interview. This will be measured against the essential criteria and the following behaviours:-

Making Effective Decisions
Communicating & Influencing
Working Together
Developing Self & Others
Delivering at Pace

The panel would prefer face to face interviews at Stephenson House in Darlington. However, shortlisted candidates invited to interview can email DBSPeopleSupportTeam@dbs.gov.uk to request a virtual interview via MS Teams if preferred.

The following timetable outlines indicative dates. Please note, these dates may be subject to change without prior notice:-

Advert closing date: 2nd February 2026 at 10.00am
Sift week commencing: 2nd February 2026
Practical Exercise: To be confirmed once sift has been completed
Interview: To be confirmed once sift has been completed.

Whilst we will endeavour to provide some flexibility with regards to dates wherever possible, it is unlikely that we will be able to offer an alternative date once an appointment has been scheduled.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£60,380 - £64,882 per year