Lawyer and Business Support Officer

Job summary

The post holder will be a key member of the Lawyer and Business Support Team providing high‑quality executive and business support to enable the effective delivery of legal operations across HM Land Registry. The Lawyer and Business Support Team is a cross functional team that on occasion provides support to other areas of HMLR, and there may be opportunity in the role to provide support to the Data and Register Integrity Group if required.

Working closely with the Deputy Director, Land Registrars and senior leaders within the Legal Operations Group, the role will support planning, coordination and prioritisation of work, ensuring senior time is used effectively and operational and strategic objectives are delivered at pace. The post holder will undertake support activities including, diary management, meeting support, travel, and recruitment support.

They will build and support effective relationships with key colleagues, including senior leaders and key stakeholders throughout HMLR demonstrating excellent organisation skills and a willingness to get involved with a diverse range of tasks.

As well as providing significant executive business coordination and bespoke support at pace for multiple senior stakeholders this role is essential in enabling the best use of senior time across the group. The role requires excellent communication and interpersonal skills as well as for the post holder to role-model the leadership values of the organisation, as they will regularly be the first point of contact for those engaging with the senior leaders of Legal Operations.

Check out the video below to see what it is like working for our Service Delivery directorate.

Job description

Main duties

• Act as a highly trusted point of contact for senior leaders within Lawyer and Business Support, managing information flow and enquiries sensitively and professionally
• Provide proactive diary and meeting management support, ensuring senior time is prioritised in line with business objectives
• Act as a gatekeeper for senior leaders, challenging priorities where appropriate to support effective decision making
• Prepare, draft and quality‑assure communications, briefings and papers for internal and external audiences
• Ensure actions arising from governance meetings are tracked, prioritised and progressed in a timely manner
• Coordinate recruitment activity, onboarding and resourcing activity for LBST, working closely with HR and resourcing teams
• Organise and facilitate meetings, conferences, workshops and other events (both face‑to‑face and virtual), including agenda management and follow‑up
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with peers, lawyers, casework teams, business support colleagues and stakeholders across HMLR
• Handle sensitive or urgent matters calmly and professionally, escalating issues appropriately
• Contribute flexibly to team priorities, undertaking ad‑hoc tasks essential to operational delivery
• Take responsibility for own development, seeking opportunities to improve processes and ways of working
• Develop and maintain positive working relationships with peers and senior staff both in LBST and the wider HMLR.

Leadership

• Demonstrate leadership strengths and behaviours in line with HMLR’s leadership expectations, especially championing a culture of inclusion and equal opportunity, and challenging inappropriate behaviour in accordance with the Diversity and Inclusion policy
• Maintain full awareness of office and agency wide aims and ensure that you understand the standards required in your role.
• Participate in embedding any changes identified as part of local or national initiatives, ensuring that you adopt and maintain standard operating procedures.
• Support on office wider leadership matters and local changes as appropriate.

Line Management (if applicable)

• Apply HM Land Registry policy in a sensible, appropriate and consistent way, taking advice and guidance from others where required.
• Manage staff inclusively in accordance with HMLR cultural aspirations.
• Undertake regular 1-2-1 discussions with the ROs that you hold line management responsibilities for. Build capability and commitment to effective performance in the team through ongoing coaching and development and the adoption of best practice.
• Ensure all relevant Health & Safety management duties are undertaken promptly and conscientiously.
• Communicate regularly and appropriately with team members ensuring important corporate or office information is delivered in a timely way and is understood, recognising the current demands of line managing remotely.
• Participate fully and sensitively in opportunities to share and gain knowledge and experience with fellow line managers to encourage consistency of approach and development of management skills (e.g. Line Managers Forums).

Person specification

The successful candidate must have the below essential experience:

• Experience of coordinating activities, communications and priorities on behalf of senior colleagues and stakeholders, using sound judgement to manage competing demands and achieve organisational objectives.
• Excellent organisational skills with an ability to prioritise to meet deadlines, and work under pressure in a fast-paced environment to deliver the best outcome for senior stakeholders and HMLR.
• Ability to communicate clearly to a range of audiences and grades for a variety of purposes.
• High levels of confidentiality and discretion.
• Influencing peers and senior managers to achieve desired results
• Good level of IT literacy and PC skills including use of Outlook, Word and Excel.

Due to the dispersed nature of the team, travel will be required to attend meetings, which may involve overnight stays. This is not anticipated at being more than two or three times a month.

For more information about the role and the full Person Specification, please see the attached Job Description.

Please note you will be required to work a minimum of 30 hours per week in this post across a minimum of 4 days.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Seeing the Big Picture

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,119, HM Land Registry contributes £9,304 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).

#WeAreHMLR

At HM Land Registry our vision is a world leading property market as part of a thriving economy and a sustainable future. We are unique in terms of the economic and social impacts of our work, our ability to make a positive difference to the lives of our customers, our sense of mission, and our great people. They are the foundation of all we have achieved and all we aspire to in the future. We want our people to feel proud to work for HM Land Registry and able to fulfil their full potential.

We have a strong and positive culture, a commitment to inclusivity, an emphasis on continuous learning and development, and flexible ways of working. We offer competitive pay and annual leave, attractive pension options and a wide range of other benefits.

• We have integrity – we value honesty, trust and doing the right thing in the right way.
• We drive innovation – we are forward-thinking, embrace change and are continually improving our processes.
• We are professional – we value and grow our knowledge and professional expertise.
• We give assurance – we guarantee our services and provide confidence to the property market.

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, Strengths and Experience.

To apply you will need to complete the short application form and take the online Customer Service Test. You MUST build in time to complete the full application process if you pass the online tests, so we recommend completing the tests as soon as possible.

It is recommended that you complete practice tests before completing the online tests. For more information about preparing for the Civil Service Verbal, Numeric and Casework Skills tests and access to practice tests, please follow these links:

Preparing for the Customer Service Skills Test - GOV.UK

If you need guidance about reasonable adjustments for online tests see the link here and please use the ‘help required’ button on the application form to request support. Please note that the third section of the test is timed; you will have 10 minutes to complete this section.

If you pass the online test(s), you will then move onto the next stage of the application process, where you will be invited to submit your full application form, which includes your Personal Statement.

To apply, you will need to complete the short application form, and the Personal Statement section (in no more than 750 words) should be used to outline your wider skills and experience for the role and detail how you meet the essential experience criteria listed below:

• Experience of coordinating activities, communications and priorities on behalf of senior colleagues and stakeholders, using sound judgement to manage competing demands and achieve organisational objectives.
• Excellent organisational skills with an ability to prioritise to meet deadlines, and work under pressure in a fast-paced environment to deliver the best outcome for senior stakeholders

In the event of a high volume of applications for this vacancy, an initial sift will be conducted on the below and a full sift only carried out on those applications that pass the initial sift stage:

• Experience of coordinating activities, communications and priorities on behalf of senior colleagues and stakeholders, using sound judgement to manage competing demands and achieve organisational objectives.

Please review your application form before clicking ‘submit’ – once you have submitted, you will not be able to amend your application. Ensure your application form is received by the closing date for receipt of applications – this is 23:55pm on the advertised date.

The sift will take place shortly after the closing date. If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend an interview from week commencing 31st August 2026. Further details will be provided on invitation to interview.

The blended interview will assess the behaviours listed in the Job Description, as well as the strengths associated with the role. We want to hear your first, unrehearsed, natural response to the strength questions, and so we don’t advertise which strengths are being tested. The best way to prepare for strengths questions is to reflect on what you identify as your own personal strengths, and your preferred ways of working.

Please note that we will not be testing any of the desirable criteria throughout this process.

Candidates may refer to notes within their interview, but they should be used as a prompt only.

HMLR is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria at the shortlisting stage may be invited to attend an interview. If you require the panel to consider a reasonable adjustment or there is anything else you would like the panel to take into consideration, you are asked to notify us of this at application stage where possible or during the process as soon as it becomes a requirement.

Candidates should be aware that any travel expenses incurred when attending interviews for this role will not be covered by HMLR.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role is in a certain business critical category. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a skilled worker visa.

You must ensure you have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying.

You can find more information on how we use your personal data on our website.

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 : Gill Hancock
• Email : Gill.Hancock@landregistry.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance to the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from HM Land Registry then you may take your complaint to the Civil Service Commission: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/making-complaint/

Attachments

Lawyer and Business Support Officer - Job Description Opens in new window (pdf, 182kB)