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To provide legal advice to the Parole Board including to the Chair, Vice-Chair, CEO, senior leadership and PB members.
To attend Management Committee, Senior Leadership Group (SLG) and SLT, Standards Committee, and other Committees or working groups as necessary from time to time
To lead the development of policy, guidance and legislation
To contribute to the delivery of training for staff, members and stakeholders
To oversee the Board’s research work
To oversee and direct all litigation to which the Board is a party
To be responsible for complex and high profile legal challenges in the higher courts
To direct and oversee the work of the Legal and Policy Function
To be responsible for the Legal and Policy Function’s budget
To lead the Legal & Practice team in dealing with legal queries
To support specialist workstreams within the Board, including reconsideration, set aside, public hearings, non disclosure, public hearings, TACT cases and CLOSED proceedings
To represent the Board to internal and external stakeholders events and meetings, including with senior officials, the senior judiciary and on occasion with Ministers
To sit on external working groups from time to time
Such other responsibilities are as assigned by management from time to time

Primary Deliverables

Legal advice
Policy and guidance
Legislation
Conduct of litigation
Budget management

Person Specification

Essential

Qualified to provide professional legal services (solicitor, barrister)
Deep experience of public law and litigation
Deep experience of policy and legislative development
Excellent written and oral communication skills including adept at relaying complex information in a simple, digestible format
Ability to interact confidently with internal and external stakeholders, including senior officials, Ministers and members of the judiciary.
Ability to combine both a strategic outlook with forensic attention to detail
Experience of budget management
Experience of managing teams
Experience in using Microsoft programmes

Desirable

Experience in civil litigation
Experience in criminal litigation
Experience in prison law
Security clearance to DV level or willingness to undergo screening to obtain it

About the Parole Board:

The Parole Board is an independent court-like body that carries out risk assessments on prisoners to determine whether they can be safely released into the community We do that with great care and public safety is our number one priority.

All Parole Board decisions are solely focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk to the public after release. Not all decisions Members make are popular, but they make these decisions fairly and objectively.

The Board is made up of about 230 secretariat staff based in our and approximately 380 Members who make decisions on risk and hold hearings at prisons around the country.

The Parole Board is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. Staff who work for the Parole Board Secretariat are Public Servants and not Civil Servants.

About the role:

This is an exciting role on the Senior Leadership Team of the Parole Board. You will be the principal legal advisor at the Parole Board, providing legal advice and support to Parole Board members, the Chair, Vice-Chair, CEO, the senior leadership team and across the Parole Board secretariat. You will also lead and manage the legal and policy team, consisting of a mix of other legally qualified and policy staff. The team handles all legal challenges to which the Board is a party, oversees those parts of the Parole Board process with a legal nature, develops policy, guidance and practice advice for the membership, and co-ordinates the Board’s research functions. You will assist in the development of policy, guidance, training and new legislation for the Parole Board (both secondary and primary). You will attend senior management meetings and form part of the Board’s Senior Leadership Team. You will work collaboratively with and represent the Board to external stakeholders.

Main Duties:

As set out in the job description above.

Behaviours

We will assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Making Effective Decisions
Leadership
Changing and Improving
Communicating and Influencing

We will also assess Experience.

Security:

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed, which is to be security cleared to SC-level. Candidates must be willing to undergo screening to Developed Vetting (DV) level.

Accessibility

The Parole Board is a disability confident recruiter. Accessibility requests will be carefully considered and, where reasonable, actioned.

Whilst the Parole Board office is principally located in London, and, for the purposes of organisational management and administration, it is not required to conduct business in Welsh. However, the Parole Board welcomes applications from candidates who speak Welsh and English as part of its commitment to treat both languages on a basis of equality in the conduct of public business and administration of justice in Wales, as far as is both appropriate and reasonable, and to reflect the community it serves.

Office requirements

This role is hybrid. You will be required to spend a minimum of 20% of your time in person contact. For some SLT and MC meetings as well as member staff away days, training, or other events, you will be required to attend in person either in London or at other locations within the UK. This role will require attendance in court to represent the Parole Board, Ministry of Justice for CLOSED sessions and other duties where required.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience. An up-to-date CV must be provided. At the interview stage you will be assessed against Behaviours, Strengths and Experience. A presentation and a technical scenario-based activity will also be assessed.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Licences

A practicing certificate (or an equivalent) allowing you to practise as a solicitor or barrister.

Behaviours

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

Leadership
Making Effective Decisions
Changing and Improving
Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

Please describe a time when you led advice on a legally complex, operationally sensitive or high-profile matter

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £69,520, Parole Board contributes £20,139 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).

Access to learning and development
A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
Annual Leave
Public Holidays
Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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, Experience and Technical skills.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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.

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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://jobs.justice.gov.uk/careers/JobDetail/19492?entityId=19492

Salary range

£69,520 - £87,173 per year