Paralegal Assistant - Regional Areas

Job summary

The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for delivering justice through the independent and effective prosecution of crime. As the principal prosecuting authority across England and Wales, our work is often emotionally challenging and complex. As such we employ over 7,000 individuals who think objectively, act professionally, show the upmost respect for others and continually strive for excellence.

We are looking for individuals who are committed to public service, making a difference in people’s lives and delivering justice. We are committed to delivering the highest standards in this complex and challenging field.

As a paralegal assistant, you’re often the first point of contact dealing with enquiries and correspondence – delivering excellent customer service to internal and external stakeholders. You’re responsible for providing casework support within your team, gaining insight into the important work of the Crown Prosecution Service along the way.

You build on your skills – including communication, quality checking and time management – to complete your work to a high standard and help achieve your team’s goals and objectives.

You must have excellent written, verbal and digital communication skills including knowledge of Microsoft 365 applications.

As part of your application, you're asked to choose your preferred location. We make offers in merit order for each location, based on your first preference.

This is an in-person, court-based role. You are assigned to an office base, but your working week is spent at different courts within your chosen location, or occasionally the wider region. Hybrid working is not available for this role.

The court locations within each Crown Prosecution Service Area are listed in the information pack attached to the advert. These are provided as a guide to the courts you may attend and should not be seen as a fixed or exhaustive list, as allocations may vary depending on operational need.

Please note, we are currently advertising two paralegal assistant campaigns. You are only able to apply for one of them - either the paralegal assistant - casework or the paralegal assistant - regional areas. If you submit two applications we will accept your first submitted application and the second will be rejected.

Job description

Paralegal assistants provide vital administrative and casework support on the frontline of our service. You work with the paralegal team to prepare cases for the magistrates’ and Crown Court – producing court documents and court listings, managing case files, drafting letters and briefing prosecutors. You liaise with criminal justice partners to ensure the smooth progression of cases and provide practical support to victims and witnesses of crime.

(61) Sam, Paralegal Assistant - YouTube

Your roles and responsibilities

• You attend court, to provide support for paralegal officers and prosecutors.
• You prepare casework and documentation for court, supporting our legal teams to operate effectively and efficiently.
• You ensure information received is recorded accurately so that it can be easily retrieved and accessed by the team working on the case.
• You provide excellent customer service when dealing with enquiries received by your team over the phone or in writing, so that the public and stakeholders can have confidence in the work of the Crown Prosecution Service.
• You ensure all work is produced to a high standard reflecting the values of the Crown Prosecution Service. You can read more about the Crown Prosecution Service and our values on our website.

If you’re currently doing an apprenticeship within the Crown Prosecution Service and you’re successful in getting this role, you must complete your apprenticeship course if the role is relevant.

Person specification

To be eligible to apply for this opportunity, you must:

• be at least 18 years of age
• have excellent written, verbal and digital communication skills - including knowledge of Microsoft 365 applications
• have an interest in criminal law and public service

You don’t need qualifications or legal experience for this role, a structured induction training plan is provided. Customer service skills are desirable but not required.

Our regional teams

The Crown Prosecution Service works across England and Wales, with 14regional teams prosecuting cases locally in magistrates' and Crown Courts.

Each of these regional teams are known as Crown Prosecution Service Areas – they are led by a chief crown prosecutor whose paralegal, casework and prosecution staff work closely with local police forces and other criminal justice partners to prepare and prosecute local cases.

While the Crown Prosecution Service operates a hybrid working policy, some roles - including the paralegal assistant role - must attend court for the full working week to carry out their role and responsibilities. You must consider if the commute from your home to court is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. If you’re successful, we will discuss this before you take up the post.

These posts are available within the following Crown Prosecution Service directorates and locations:

North East - reserve list only

West Midlands - reserve list only

East Midlands - reserve list only (If your preferred location is Derby, you will be contracted to Nottingham but will be based within Derby Crown Court)

East of England - reserve list only

London - reserve list only

Wales - reserve list only

North West - reserve list only

Mersey Cheshire - reserve list only

South West - 2 Posts

Wessex - 1 Post

South East - 1 Post

Yorkshire and Humberside - 3 Posts

Thames and Chiltern - 5 Posts

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,200, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £7,590 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Join the Crown Prosecution Service and find your purpose.

Why we work for the Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we're a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We're a committed equal opportunities employer, creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

This culture of inclusion is underpinned by our staff networks covering disability, faith and belief, LGBTQI+, race, social mobility alongside our mental health first aiders programme and wellbeing sessions.

The Crown Prosecution Service commits to offer its employees the following experience.

• You can do impactful, purposeful work that’s making a difference to your local communities.
• You are able to learn and grow, with access to the right opportunities and resources.
• We care about your wellbeing.
• We want you to feel valued, trusted and included.

We also offer the following range of benefits:

• Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%
• 25 days’ leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years
• £350 each year to spend on personal development
• an extra privilege day to mark the King's birthday
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• flexible working including flexitime, and a family friendly approach to work
• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings.

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identity or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact EarlyCareers@cps.gov.uk

We want to ensure our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes flexibility of working hours, flexibility to support caring responsibilities and a flexible approach to deployment. We offer a hybrid working policy. There is an expectation that you spend at least 40% of your contracted hours over a four-week period at court, in an office or another official workplace depending on business need and the kind of work you're doing.For this role, however, it’s likely that you will spend almost 100% of your time in court. You must consider if the commute from your home to court is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. If you’re successful, we will discuss this before you take up the post.

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 Strengths and Experience.

The recruitment process consists of an online test & application, video interview and a final virtual interview.

Behaviours – assessed at video interview & final interview stage

• Motivation (lead behaviour) – video interview and final interview
• Making effective decisions – video interview
• Delivering at pace – video interview
• Managing a quality service – final interview
• Communicating & Influencing - final interview

The panel has the right to assess the lead behaviour ‘Motivation’ first. If the standard on this behaviour isn’t met, the other behaviours won’t be considered, and your video interview won’t progress. The panel also has the right to raise the minimum standard pass mark.

The panel may also refer to the lead behaviour at the interview stage to determine merit order.

Motivation – lead behaviour

We want to understand why you want to work in public service, law and the Crown Prosecution Service. We’re be looking for you to address the following five things at both video and final interview.

• Why you want to join the Crown Prosecution Service.
• Why you want to work in public service.
• Your interest in the criminal justice system.
• A strong focus on continuous learning and a willingness to progress your training and development.
• Awareness of the Crown Prosecution Service values and priorities – our latest strategy is available on our website: CPS 2030 strategy , The Crown Prosecution Service

First stage - Civil Service judgment test and application

After submitting the initial short application form, you are automatically invited to complete the online Civil Service Judgement Test. If you successfully complete the online test you are invited to complete an employment history section. Please note, this is not assessed by the panel. Both the online test and full application form must be completed and submitted before 11am on 6 July 2026.

Please ensure you allow enough time to complete both the online test and full application form before the deadline. We recommend completing the online test within 24 to 48 hours of receiving the invitation, to allow time to resolve any potential technical issues.

We send you an invitation to take the test and provide full instructions about how to complete it. The test can’t be taken on mobile phones or tablets.

For more guidance about the online Civil Service tests, please see the GOV.UK website: Civil Service online tests - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Any duplicate applications will be rejected.

Second stage - video interview

If you pass the first stage, you will be invited to complete a video interview. This is not a live interview - you will use an online platform to record your responses to timed questions.

Invitations to the video interview will be sent by email on 7 July, with full guidance and instructions included.

If you require any reasonable adjustments for the video interview, please contact earlycareers@cps.gov.uk by 11am on 6 July. Requests received after this time may not be able to be accommodated.

You will be able to access the video interview system from 7 July and you must complete and submit your video interview by 11am on 14 July.

Third stage - final interview

If you pass the second stage, you will be invited to attend an interview with a Crown Prosecution Service panel. Full guidance and instructions will be provided with your invitation.

Interviews are scheduled to take place between 24 August and 18 September and will be held virtually through Microsoft Teams.

Please note these dates are subject to change, and we cannot guarantee alternative interview dates.

At this stage, you will book your own interview slot through Civil Service Jobs. Once your slot has been confirmed, we cannot guarantee that changes will be possible.

We understand interviews can be stressful, so you will be sent your final interview Behaviour questions in advance.

Strengths

Strengths are tested at interview stage - the strengths tested are not shared before the interview.

Offer of employment

You can select up to three preferred office locations if you’re successful. We’ll aim to offer you a role in your first preference location where possible.

Results are expected to be issued in the week commencing 22 September, this is subject to change.

The number of offers made may vary depending on business need.

Offers will be made in merit order within each location. Once roles have been filled, candidates who have passed but have not been appointed will be placed on a location-based reserve list for up to 12 months.

During this time, you may be offered a role if a vacancy arises in that location.

If you’re offered a role that you’re unable to accept due to extenuating circumstances, you may be able to remain on the reserve list. Please note that the reserve list will expire 12 months after the interview date, and we cannot guarantee that a role in your preferred location will become available.

Information sessions

We are holding a series of information sessions – these are live webchats where you can ask us any queries you may have about your application, the process or the role. You can register here:

24 June at 1pm- https://meetandengage.com/amq9e5zjc

1 July at 1pm - https://meetandengage.com/amq9e85rx

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

We are unable to offer visa sponsorship. If you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, we request a Disclosure and Barring Service check, for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, nationality and immigration questionnaire.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply.You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

Reserve list Only

Please note that some locations are advertised as reserve list only. For these locations, candidates who are successful will be placed on a location-based reserve list for up to 12 months and may be offered a role if a vacancy arises in that location during this time.

Reasonable adjustments

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want you to feel that you belong and can thrive, whatever your background, identify or culture. As a Disability Confident employer, we're happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you'd like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know within your application or contact EarlyCareers@cps.gov.uk.

Fraud check

The Crown Prosecution Service provides a Fair Processing Notice to all new applicants after they’ve been successful at interview. These candidates are informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details – name, National Insurance number and date of birth – are checked against the Internal Fraud Database. We won't employ anyone included on the database unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

The Strategic Resourcing team in the Crown Prosecution Service will, on behalf of the vacancy holder, inform applicants when they are refused employment because of their inclusion in the Internal Fraud Database.

Feedback

You will only be able to obtain feedback if you attend an interview or assessment.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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.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 : Earlycareers@cps.gov.uk
• Email : Earlycareers@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Earlycareers@cps.gov.uk

Further information

If you’re dissatisfied and want to make a complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page.
https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/civilserv…

You can find the Civil Service Commission recruitment principles here
https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

You can find the Civil Service nationality rules here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website here
https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Attachments

Expected Court Coverage - Paralegal Assistant 2026 Opens in new window (docx, 30kB)