Correspondence, Freedom of Information, and Write Round Manager to Scotland Office Ministers (Ref: 17094)

Job summary

Please refer to Job Description

Job description

The Scotland Office supports the Secretary of State for Scotland in promoting the best interests of Scotland within a stronger United Kingdom. It ensures the people of Scotland are fully and effectively represented at the heart of the UK Government, and the UK Government’s work is seen and felt in Scotland.

The Role

The Correspondence Manager role is an excellent opportunity to work at the heart of Government and to manage correspondence on a wide range of issues concerning Scotland.

The successful candidate will join a friendly, collaborative team of 12 within the Private Office. They will report directly to one of the Secretary of State’s private secretaries, providing the chance to work closely with ministers to achieve their objectives.

Your primary focus will be on managing the Scotland Office’s correspondence caseload, ensuring that correspondence for ministers and the department is accurately logged, drafted, and issued according to cross-government deadlines. Correspondence is an important part of the democratic process, and underlines the accountability of ministers to Parliament and the public. As such, we have ambitious targets and high standards for the quality and timeliness of all replies to correspondence, and you will need to work flexibly across the department to ensure these standards are met.

You will also take responsibility for the management of write rounds and Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests for the Scotland Office. This includes managing the effective recording, compilation, and quality assurance of FOI responses, and developing a strong working understanding of the FOI Act to ensure that the department is fulfilling its statutory obligations in this area.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure that correspondence is accurately logged, processed, and tracked. Manage the progression of correspondence to ensure responses are sent within departmental timescales.
• Manage the logging and processing of Freedom of Information requests to ensure responses fall within statutory deadlines. This includes drafting responses and providing high quality advice on the handling of FOI requests.
• Manage the Scotland Office’s write round processes, working closely with private secretaries and officials to ensure that Scotland Office returns are correctly processed.
• Manage the Scotland Office’s general enquiries inbox, drafting written responses to correspondence from members of the public using departmental lines.
• Monitor correspondence performance, providing regular statistics to ministers and proactively address challenges as they arise.
• Play a leading role in the Scotland Office’s engagement with the cross-government correspondence network.
• Support the continuous improvement of processes within your brief, working closely with the Scotland Office’s corporate team to integrate Artificial Intelligence into our ways of working.

Person specification

Successful candidates should be:

• Proactive and able to manage their time effectively;
• Able to deliver at pace and manage multiple cases at once;
• A confident writer with a keen eye for detail;
• Confident in building positive working relationships with a wide range of teams and other Government departments.

Essential Skills:

• Excellent written English and communication skills, including accurate grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Ability to work at pace and deliver against multiple deadlines.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace tools (or Microsoft Office), including Google Sheets and Google Docs.
• Comfortable working independently.
• Willing to work creatively to build AI into their processes.

Desirable Skills:

• Existing understanding or training on the Freedom of Information Act.
• Confident and skilled in the use of IT and digital tools, including AI.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Behaviours

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

• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,303, Ministry of Justice contributes £8,489 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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 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.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.

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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/17094?entityId=17094