Shellfish and Food Hygiene Official Controls Adviser

Job summary

Are you able to analyse a range of complex information to make evidence-based decisions and recommendations?

Can you establish and maintain productive relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders?

If so, this is an exciting opportunity to join the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as our Shellfish and Food Hygiene Official Controls Advisor, and we’d love to hear from you!

Job description

This post is part of the Regulatory Compliance Division that has responsibility for regulatory standards, compliance with these standards and delivery support. This relates to official feed and food controls delivered by local authorities, the FSA itself and by other delivery partners on the FSA’s behalf.

The Division plays a leading role in delivering the FSA’s ambitions to devise and implement new approaches to the delivery of official controls for food and feed alongside other key strategic aims. The role will therefore require a strong and effective performer who is able to work in a challenging and fast paced environment.

The Food Hygiene and Shellfish team provide a centralised, comprehensive source of expertise and advice on the delivery of hygiene official controls. The advisor roles monitor hygiene controls at primary production level for Live Bivalve Molluscs (LBMs) delivered through monitoring programmes. The post holder will also support general food hygiene delivery. Engagement with a wide range of stakeholders including delivery partners, Local Authorities (LAs) and other Government Departments (OGD’s) to ensure compliance with the regulatory framework is a primary function of the role. The team lead on exploring new and innovative approaches to improve the efficiency and robustness of the control system, to meet FSA strategic objectives of “food is safe and what it says it is”; and “gathering and using science, evidence and information” to improve the Agency’s ability to respond to emerging challenges. The post holder will represent the FSA at meetings and attend events and may be required to prepare and deliver presentations.

Continuous improvements in the delivery of official controls are fundamental to delivering the FSAs programme of work to modernise the way food production is regulated. In addition, there are excellent opportunities across the wide remit of the Regulatory Compliance Division, and we encourage and expect our staff to undertake training and development.

Person specification

Please read the attached Candidate Pack to discover further details about the role, our organisation, who we are looking for and the criteria we will assess against during the selection process.

We look forward to receiving your application and wish you every success.

Qualifications

A Science-based degree or significant experience of data analysis or interpretation

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,955, Food Standards Agency contributes £10,126 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.Our candidate pack details the benefits that the FSA has to offer. Please also refer to the attached Terms and Conditions statement.

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.

Full details of the selection process are detailed in the attached candidate pack.

Application and shortlisting

You will be asked to provide personal details (not seen by the Panel) and to confirm your eligibility to apply for the role.

Technical: You will be asked a question to confirm that you meet the Technical requirements of the role.

· A Science-based degree or significant experience of data analysis or interpretation

If you cannot answer yes to this question – you will not be able to proceed further with your application.

You will then be asked to complete an application which will be used to assess you against the following essential and desirable criteria. (Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie between candidates).

Essential criteria

Experience

• Lead criteria: Proven ability to analyse a range of complex information and datasets to identify and assess options to make evidence-based decisions and recommendations
• Experience of establishing and maintaining productive relationships working collaboratively with a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Excellent organisational skills including the ability to deliver quality outputs to agreed timeframes, managing competing priorities effectively and working to tight deadlines
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain complex information and analysis – both written and verbal – to different audiences using different methods

Desirable criteria (Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie between candidates).

Experience

· Knowledge and understanding of the regulatory delivery landscape for food and feed in the UK

· Experience of delivering formal presentations to both peers and senior managers

Lead Criteria

An initial sift will take place on the Lead Criteria.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, the minimum pass mark for the Lead Criteria may be raised at shortlisting stage. Candidates who apply under the DCS, GPTW or RIS schemes and meet the minimum requirements will be unaffected by the pass mark raise.

Interview

If successful at shortlisting stage, you will be invited to a final interview in which we will assess you against the following Experience requirements of the role and Civil Service Behaviours.

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together

Full details of the positive indicators being assessed for each Behaviour can be found in the Candidate Pack.

Experience

· Proven ability to analyse a range of complex information and datasets to identify and assess options to make evidence-based decisions and recommendations

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Expected Timeline

Advert closes: 20/01/26

Sift: Expected to take place from 21/01/26

Final panel interview: Expected to take place w/c 02/02/26

Interviews will be held remotely via MS Teams. (If you do not have the Microsoft Teams application installed on your computer, you can join on the web without installing the application).

Please note that indicated dates may be subject to change.

Childcare Vouchers

Any move to the Food Standards Agency from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare.

Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reserve List

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

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that the FSA does not hold a licence to sponsor any visa applications and we are unable to provide any advice about visas.

Eligibility

Current Civil Servants (all contract types) will need to ensure that they are still employed as a civil servant at the point of starting in the relevant new post. If their contract ends (e.g. end of FTA contract or resignation) at any point during the recruitment/onboarding process for the advertised role, they will no longer be eligible and will be withdrawn.

Making a complaint

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

If you feel your application has not been treated fairly in accordance with the principles, and you wish to make a complaint, you should email the FSA’s Director of People at jo.bushnell@food.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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.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 : Mariam Aleem
• Email : mariam.aleem@food.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk

Further information

If you wish to raise a complaint then please email hr.recruitment.campaigns@food.gov.uk in the first instance.

Attachments

Shellfish and Food Hygiene - Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1007kB)Terms and Conditions as at April 2020 Opens in new window (pdf, 42kB)