Business Services Officer

Job summary

Are you organised, customer-focused and looking for a varied role where you can make a practical difference?

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is looking for a Business Services Officer to join its Business Services team. This is a full-time role based on site at our York office, where you will help provide a welcoming, efficient and reliable service.

You will provide responsive support to colleagues across the organisation, working collaboratively and adapting to changing priorities. This role would suit someone who communicates clearly, plans their work effectively and takes pride in delivering a reliable service. You will receive training across a range of workstreams, helping you build your knowledge and contribute flexibly wherever support is needed.

The FSA is a non-ministerial department of over 1600 people. We play a critical role in protecting public health and consumers’ wider interests in food across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our vision is an important one - to drive change, delivering “food you can trust” and working towards a healthier and more sustainable food system

Job description

As our successful candidate, you’ll help plan and deliver internal and external meetings and events, arrange travel, accommodation and car hire, raise purchase orders, process invoices and collate management information. You will also support the smooth running of the York office by preparing meeting rooms, welcoming visitors and helping to ensure that workplace equipment remains operational.

As part of the wider team, you will respond to enquiries from the public by telephone and email, including questions about food hygiene and starting a food business. You will help manage and allocate incoming work, identify opportunities to improve processes and develop a working knowledge of other Business Services activities so that you can assist across different areas when organisational needs change.

If this sounds like the role for you, we’d love to hear from you.

Working pattern guidance

Due to the nature of the role this role is offered as full time office-based in York only. You will be required to work the following pattern as your contractual working hours.

· Monday to Thursday (09.00 – 17.30) Friday (09.30 – 17.30) including 1 hour lunch break each day.

Please read before applying

This post is a temporary Fixed Term/Loan appointment available for 1 year from appointment due to limited funding for project work. There may be the potential, but no guarantee, of extension or permanency.

Candidates that are already established Civil Servants or from non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) will come to the FSA on a Loan basis and will need to request permission from their Home Department for the Loan prior to applying for this vacancy.

Note for FSA employees

You must seek approval from your substantive manager before applying for any non-permanent vacancy - please refer to the ‘Temporary internal appointments framework’ on the FSA intranet for more details. Please note that if applying for a temporary post within the FSA or elsewhere on promotion, successful appointment will not automatically result in a permanent promotion - you will revert to your current substantive grade at the end of the Fixed Term or Loan period (unless funding has been approved to make the post permanent).

Person specification

Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.

We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £31,332, Food Standards Agency contributes £9,076 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

Please take a look at the Working for the Food Standards Agency , Civil Service Careers to find out about the benefits the FSA has to offer

Please also refer to the Terms and Conditions statement attached to this advert.

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.

Full details of the selection process can be found in the attached candidate pack.

Application and shortlisting

You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role.

You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential criteria.

Essential criteria

Experience

1. Strong work planning and prioritisation skills (lead criteria 1)

2. Excellent written and verbal communication and customer service skills (lead criteria 2)

3. Confident delivery of excellent customer services with minimal day to day supervision

4. Experience of using standard workplace IT applications, including Outlook or equivalent, to communicate by email and support day-to-day administrative tasks

Lead criteria 1 and 2: An initial sift will take place on the lead criteria 1. If successful at lead criteria 1, your application will be assessed against lead criteria 2. If successful at lead criteria 2, your application will progress to full sift.

In the event we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the lead criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirement will be unaffected by the pass mark raise.

Interview

If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in which we will assess you against the following

Civil Service Behaviours.

Behaviours

· Making Effective Decisions

· Managing a Quality Service

· Delivering at Pace

· Communicating and Influencing

Full details of the positive indicators being assessed for each Behaviour can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 9 November 2026 (23:55)

Sift: Expected to take place from 10 November 2026

Final panel interview: Expected to take place 24 or 25 November 2026

We will be holding interviews face to face at the York FSA office (Foss House, Peasholme Green, York)

Please note – regrettably we are unable to refund travel costs if candidates attend an interview/selection stage for the vacancy.

Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reserve List

A reserve list will be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that the FSA does not offer visa sponsorship and cannot provide advice on visa applications

Making a complaint

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated fairly in accordance with the principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email the FSA’s Director of People at jo.bushnell@food.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.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.

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Chris Simpson
• Email : chris.simpson@food.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk

Further information

If you wish to raise a complaint then please email hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk in the first instance.

Attachments

v1.0 Candidate Pack Business Services Officer (York) (EO) FTA Opens in new window (pdf, 983kB)Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)