Senior Legal Policy Officer

Job summary

Are you an experienced Policy professional with sound judgement, looking for a new challenge? Do you have an ability to secure the trust and confidence of colleagues and senior leaders?

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.

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.

As part of the Legal and Data Services team, this role sits at the heart of the organisation, providing advice and support to colleagues across the Authority, such as Data Ethics, Data Protection and Research Accreditation. The post holder will respond to a high volume of varied and complex enquiries, requiring sound judgement, adaptability and critical thinking skills. The work is wide ranging and engaging, involving identifying risks, developing proportionate solutions and providing clear, practical guidance in a fast-paced environment.

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.

Providing high quality advice and support on legal requirements, and best practice relating to statistical legislation and information rights is essential to ensuring the Authority meets its statutory requirements and maintain public trust.

Job description

This role supports the Head of Legal Services in delivering the Authority’s legal and legislative functions, including information rights and other key areas of law which underpin public confidence in statistics.

You will work at the centre of a fast moving and high profile environment, dealing with a wide range of complex queries. Drawing on strong problem solving and influencing skills, you will act as role-model and an authoritative, trusted voice within your team and among stakeholders, helping to shape effective and proportionate responses to emerging challenges and the current statistical policy issues.

You will provide expert, well-reasoned advice to colleagues and senior leaders, building trust through confidently engaging with integrity, honesty and providing a clear professional judgment. Your advice will be expert, considered and provided in context of the wider organisational and policy context.

You will motivate, engage and support your team to provide a quality service to often demanding deadlines, individually and as an integral part of the legal and Data Services team. You will contribute to a collaborative, supportive team environment where high standards and continuous improvement are valued.

Responsibilities:

• Providing trusted, high quality advice and support to inform effective decision-making by colleagues and senior officials across the Authority on information rights and statistical legislation– both personally and through the team.
• Developing and maintaining strong effective relationships with senior officials across the organisation, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Managing of a small team of policy officers, setting clear standards for high quality and effective written and oral briefing, utilising the advice of lawyers and relevant experts when appropriate.
• Managing the Authority’s legal queries mailbox, responsible for advising and assisting with queries received in a timely manner.

Person specification

Essential Skills Criteria

• A proven ability to manage multiple competing priorities to restrictive timelines to deliver high quality outcomes.
• Experience of working within an environment where compliance with policy, legislation or regulation is necessary for success
• Able to provide advice clearly and with confidence.
• The ability to analyse complex matters and take evidence-based decisions with authority and clarity.

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,985, UK Statistics Authority contributes £12,163 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

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1000 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.

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.

A presentation will be required at interview. Further information will be provided to successful candidates prior to interview.

Interviews will be held in person on site, either Newport or Titchfield. Travel costs will not be re-imbursed.

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

Important dates:

Sift will be conducted from: w/c 2/3/2026

Interviews will be conducted from: w/c 16/3/2026

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)