Crime Indexer - Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS)

Job summary

The Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) work to identify the potential emergence of serial killers and serial rapists at the earliest stage of their offending and supports investigations into serious stranger sexual offences and murders nationwide.

According to Codes of Practice, police forces must submit case information for offences meeting SCAS criteria. SCAS provides analytical assistance using the ViCLAS database (a national database of serious sexual offences) to conduct Comparative Case Analysis.

Our goal is to identify serial offenders and persons of interest, aiding the investigation of some of the most serious sexual crimes across the country. As a Crime Indexer, you will be part of a dedicated team responsible for collecting offences from forces and indexing them onto ViCLAS.

Recruitment Virtual Event

To find out more about the role and the application process we will be holding virtual opening evenings via MS Teams on Tuesday 20th October at 1800-1900

To register, please click on the following link

Virtual Event - Crime Indexer (SCAS)

This event is by invitation only.

You will be asked for your name and email address.

Registration will close on Monday 19th October at 1200

You will not be able to register after this date and time.

Job description

A SCAS Crime Indexer has key responsibility for collating and indexing case details relating to serious sexual offences, to aid the identification and disruption of serial sex offending across the UK.

As a Crime Indexer, you will be part of a dedicated team responsible for collecting offences from forces and indexing them onto ViCLAS. You will be responsible for maintaining relationships with police forces across the UK.

Your work will directly contribute to solving serious crimes and making communities safer.

Candidates should be aware that this role involves exposure to potentially distressing case material relating to serious sexual offences, including murder. Such material may contain references to sexual violence, trauma, physical injury, and explicit sexual language.Duties and Responsibilities

Maintaining Force Relationships

Each Crime Indexer is assigned responsibility for maintaining relationships with a share of the police forces around the UK through their SCAS Contact Officers. This ensures that forces submit cases meeting SCAS criteria.

Indexing Cases

Crime Indexers code offences into the ViCLAS database, viewing victim interviews and breaking down case information into over 100 data points. This enables Crime Analysts to search ViCLAS to identify potentially linked offences through their analysis.

Reviewing Case Submissions

Crime Indexers review cases submitted by Police forces to determine if they meet the criteria for entry into ViCLAS. They also identify and request any outstanding materials required to index the case, such as Video Recorded Interview and Crime Reports.

Person specification

Experience of prioritising workload and delivering to tight deadlines

Able to decide on priorities and effectively manages time and workload and escalates issues - ensuring tasks are completed to agreed standards and timelines

Experience of using a variety of communication methods to explain information to different audiences

Establishing and maintaining positive relationships with both internal and external stakeholders and conveys information clearly and effectively through written and verbal communication.

Experience of effective decision making

Able to examine and analyse data to help make informed choices using logic and initiative to make sense of a situation and find an intelligent solution

Ability to extract and interpret complex data/information and index it accurately.

Experience of working with information from a range of sources, ensuring data is record accurately and consistently.

Able to develop effective working relationships with colleagues, partners and other stakeholders.

Develops and maintains positive relationships with internal and/or external stakeholders in order to achieve stakeholder needs and business objectives.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions

Technical skills

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

• Workload Management

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,428, National Crime Agency contributes £10,842 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).

New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Other benefits include:

• Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements)
• Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum
• Learning and Development opportunities
• Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits
• Housing schemes - Key Worker status
• Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway , Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes.
• Staff support groups/networks
• Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC)

Further information is available on the NCA Website.

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, Experience and Technical skills.Your application will be assessed against the following:Experience - This will be assessed:

Statement of Suitability

Please provide a 750 word personal statement demonstrating how you meet the criteria below:

• Advise a time when you delivered high-quality work to a challenging deadline
• Detail how you used effective communication to influence a decision, outcome, or stakeholder
• Detail an example of when you identified a problem and successfully implemented a solution.

A panel will assess how well your application demonstrates the requirements outlined above.

You will receive an acknowledgement once your application is submitted.

We aim to have sift completed and scores released within 10 working days of the closing date of the advert. For high volume campaigns this timeframe may be extended.

Scores will be provided but further feedback will not be available at this stage.

For guidance on the application process, visit:
NCA Applying and Onboarding

Assessment 1

The format of this assessment will be an Assessment which will be tested on via the details listed below.

Candidates who are successful at sift will be invited to attend an in-person assessment in the Bristol area designed to evaluate their aptitude for case indexing, ability to manage competing workloads, and capacity to handle sensitive and distressing material with professionalism and resilience.

The assessment will be week commencing 9th November 2026 face to face and interviews week commencing 7th December 2026 on Teams

If you are successful you will be invited to the second assessment.

Assessment 2

The format of this assessment will be an Interview which will be tested on the criteria listed in the Success Profiles at Assessment section.

Success Profiles at Assessment

Behaviours

• Delivering at Pace

• Communicating and Influencing

• Making Effective Decisions

Technical

• Workload Management

Assessment OutcomeOutcomes will be communicated via the NCA recruitment portal.
If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months.
Reserve lists can be used to fill similar role types across the Agency where the assessment criteria is considered a match by the recruitment team and the business area.

In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order:

1. Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience)
2. If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised)
3. If still tied, application sift scores will be used

Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.You will be subject to vetting and pre-employment checks before appointment.Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records. We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA Careers Page for more information.

Full advert details for this vacancy can found on the advert on the NCA Recruitment Portal. Please follow the link to apply at advertisers' site.

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 security 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.

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.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 : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk
• Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk
• Telephone : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk

Further information

If you believe your application has not been treated fairly, email: Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk (quoting the vacancy reference).
If unresolved, you may escalate your complaint to the Civil Service Commission.