Legal Services Policy Assistant

Job summary

Do you have strong communication skills? Skilled in managing your own time effectively, as well as collaborating within a team? If so, this could be the role for you.

As the Legal Services Policy Assistant you will be part of a small expert team of approximately 5 staff, reporting to the Head of Legal Services. The team perform a key function within the Policy and Strategy division, at the heart of the UK Statistics Authority and the statistical system.

You will have a unique opportunity to work in a fast-paced, challenging environment, with opportunities to develop a wide range of skills. This includes, but is not limited to, the interpretation of legislation, stakeholder engagement, deadline management, and engagement with a range of topics and staff at various levels across the Authority.

The UK Statistics Authority is an independent body at arm’s length from government, established with the statutory objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good.

As a statutory body, legislation underpins all the work of the Authority; it provides the foundation of independence for the UK’s official statistics system and provides the framework through which we can access, use and share data safely while maintaining public trust.

Advice and support on legal requirements and best practice relating to information rights (including data protection) and statistical legislation are critical to the Authority meeting its public good objective.

The Authority’s responsibilities extend across the UK statistics system and include both the Office for National Statistics – the UK’s national statistical institute – and the Office for Statistics Regulation.

Job description

The role will involve assisting the Legal Services Team with all aspects of their work with a focus on the handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to a statutory deadline and which arrive on a daily basis.

Key responsibilities include:

• General branch support for the Legal Services team.

• Managing compliance with FOI requests and Data Protection requests.

• Daily organisation and management of correspondence systems used within Legal Services.

• Assisting with ad-hoc legal queries relating to FOI and Data Protection.

• Providing prompt, quality advice to colleagues on FOIs via the FOI Team mailbox.

• Providing administrative support on key projects.

• Developing and maintaining strong effective relationships with key stakeholders across the Authority.

• Identifying emerging topics and trends that will have an organisation-wide impact.

Person specification

Essential Skills Criteria

• Experience of operating flexibly and working at pace, planning and prioritising to meet tight and competing deadlines.

• Possess excellent communication skills, with the ability to adapt communication appropriately to a diverse range of colleagues, stakeholders, and members of the public.

• Able to work well alone, managing your own time and also work as part of a team, encouraging the participation of others when necessary.

• An understanding of what constitutes good service, with an ability to assess customer needs and plan accordingly.

Behaviours

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

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

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £28,138, UK Statistics Authority contributes £8,151 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.

Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.

Inclusion & Accessibility

At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.

As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.

If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.

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.

Security Clearance

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application - (In 2 parts - A Verbal Reasoning Test and Application Form)

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on a Verbal Reasoning Test, if you pass the test you will be invited to submit your written application which will include submission of your work history, qualifications and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge and experience relevant to the role.

Upon submission of Part 1 of your application form you will be sent an invitation to complete a Verbal Reasoning online test. There will be full instructions on how to complete the test including an opportunity to practice before undertaking the actual test. These tests are not time limited. If you fail the test your application will not proceed to the next stage.

If you pass the test for this vacancy, you will be invited to complete the final stage of your application, this is where you will provide information, such as your work history, qualifications and Personal Statement.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250 words, which should not be exceeded. Within your personal statement you should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams.

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

Important. dates:

The closing date for the role is 22/1/2026 at 23:55. Please note, both the Verbal Reasoning test and written application (work history, qualifications and personal statement) will need to be completed by this deadline.

Sift will be conducted from: 23/01/2026 - 28/01/2026

Interviews will be conducted from: 05/02/2026

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment below.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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 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 : Recruitment Operations Team
• Email : recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitmentoperations@ons.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact recruitment.complaints@ons.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission

Attachments

2721 Advert 1B Permanent - ONS National v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 83kB)