Deputy Private Secretary at the Ministry of Justice (On Loan,12-month)

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Private Office and Parliament Directorate

Want to see how government really works? Join a team at the heart of ministerial decision-making, where every day brings new challenges, direct exposure to Ministers, and the chance to develop skills that will serve you throughout your career. We'll support you with active development opportunities and the chance to work flexibly in a team that values your contribution.

The Private Office and Parliament (POP) Directorate is recruiting for a SEO Deputy Private Secretary on Loan. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

This role is being advertised as a 12-month Loan.

Please note that this role is available as a level transfer or temporary promotion, as a loan from your home department. Any successful candidate taking the role on temporary promotion would return at the end of the posting to their home department at their substantive grade.

The lead role being recruited for sits in the Deputy Prime Minister’s (DPM) Private Office. The DPM has an ambitious programme for both his MoJ focused role as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and his wider role as Deputy Prime Minister. This is an exciting opportunity to be at the heart of that work.

Location:

Successful candidates will be based at 102 Petty France, London.

Ways of Working

This role is available on a full-time basis.

• Due to the nature of this role the successful candidate will be expected to primarily work from the office in 102 Petty France.

• Please note that this role may require working extended hours for which a Private Secretary allowance is payable.

If we receive applications from more suitable candidates than we have vacancies for at this time, we may hold suitable applicants on a reserve list for 12 months, and future vacancies requiring the same skills and experience could be offered to candidates on the reserve list without a new competition.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity

Salary

Existing Civil Servants will have their salary calculated in accordance with the Department’s pay on transfer / pay on promotion rules.  

Security Clearance

This role requires National Security Vetting given the access to sensitive information afforded by the job role. You can find more information by reviewing the information held in the following links:

United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The vetting charter - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

In addition, there is a minimum UK residency requirement set by the Cabinet Office which is dependent on the security level required for the role.

This role requires SC and to be eligible to apply for this role you should have been present in the UK continuously for the past 5 years.

About the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MOJ is one of the largest government departments, employing over 90,000 people (including those in the Probation Service), with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including 500 courts and tribunals, and 133 prisons in England and Wales.

Further information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice

About the role

The role is based in the Private Office and Parliament (POP) Directorate. It is a busy and interesting place to work - it is the interface between Ministers, the rest of the Department and Whitehall.

Working within a busy, dynamic and friendly team, the successful candidate will be a credible source of advice to ministers. We are looking for someone who can build effective relationships, enjoys problem solving and is confident supporting an experienced minister.

What you’ll do: On a day-to-day basis, you will lead on a portfolio, ensuring that correspondence and advice are boxed in a timely manner, and providing expert support to the minister on a range of issues across their portfolio. You will collaborate with policy, Parliamentary and other Private Office colleagues, making sure that the minister is looped in on emerging issues in the right way, at the right time. You will make sure that they are fully briefed ahead of meetings, providing accurate readouts so that actions can be appropriately followed up. You will also be expected to support the Private Secretary in effective management of the team and deputise for the G7 Head of Office when required.

What we’re looking for: You will need to have strong inter-personal skills, as you will be one of the go-betweens for the minister and the rest of the department. You’ll need to be highly organised and have the ability to make effective decisions at pace. This is a public-facing role, in which you will represent the department in front of external stakeholders and to other government departments.

Why join us: This is an exciting time to join the POP directorate and we are keen for someone who is willing to learn in this busy atmosphere. We are a friendly, collegiate directorate. We have a range of corporate workstreams that make POP a fun and exciting place to work. We provide support to all private secretaries so that they can thrive and succeed in what can be demanding and fast-paced roles.

Skills and Experience

We are looking for someone who has experience of:

Essential:

• Working within a fast-paced environment

• Ability to handle sensitive information and make sound decisions under pressure.

• Confidence in engaging with senior officials, Ministers, and external stakeholders. Clear written and verbal communication is vital

• You will be comfortable with working independently, be resilient and are able to adapt your working style to address both reactive and proactive tasks.

Desirable:

• Prior exposure to ministerial or senior official support roles.

• Understanding of parliamentary processes

• Experience of line management and developing those within a wider team

Candidates applying from HMPPS should note that the Ministry of Justice does not have the same conditions of employment as HMPPS. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful.

The MoJ is proud to be Level 3 Disability Confident. Disability Confident is the approach through which we offer guaranteed interviews for all people with disabilities meeting the minimum criteria for the advertised role as set out in the job description.

Application process

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework.

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application, including your CV, statement of suitability and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

Experience

During the application process you will be asked to provide a CV in order to assess any demonstrable experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the role.

You will also be asked to upload a Statement of Suitability of no more than 500 words stating what you would bring to the role, with reference to the Skills and Experience listed above.

Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates Invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be held in-person in 102 Petty France.

Behaviours

During the panel interview, you will be asked behaviour-based questions to explore in detail what you are capable of. (see Annex A for more information):

You will be asked by the interview panel to provide examples of how you meet the three behaviours below:

• Delivering at pace

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Communicating and Influencing

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/717275/CS_Behaviours_2018.pdf

Strength based questions to also explore what you enjoy, and your motivations relevant to the job role. There is no expectation or requirement for you to prepare for the strengths-based questions in advance of the interview, though you may find it helpful to spend some time reflecting on what you enjoy doing and what you do well.

You can refer to the CS Strengths dictionary for more details: Success Profiles - Civil Service Strengths Dictionary (publishing.service.gov.uk)

There will be a short exercise during the interview, where candidates will be presented with a submission and asked to summarise the key points. The exercise will take approximately 10 minutes in total.

Interviews are expected to take place in November 2025.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch with James Wrigley or Katie Morris if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team, via: James.Wrigley@justice.gov.uk and Katie.Morris2@justice.gov.uk.

Annex A - The STAR method

Using the STAR method can help you give examples of relevant experience that you have. It allows you to set the scene, show what you did, and how you did it, and explain the overall outcome.

Situation - Describe the situation you found yourself in. You must describe a specific event or situation. Be sure to give enough detail for the job holder to understand.

• Where are you?

• Who was there with you?

• What had happened?

Task - The job holder will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation you found yourself in.

• What was the task that you had to complete and why?

• What did you have to achieve?

Actions - What did you do? The job holder will be looking for information on what you did, how you did it and why. Keep the focus on you. What specific steps did you take and what was your contribution? Remember to include how you did it, and the behaviours you used. Try to use “I" rather than “we" to explain your actions that lead to the result. Be careful not to take credit for something that you did not do.

Results - Don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. Quote specific facts and figures. Explain how the outcome benefitted the organisation or your area. Make the outcomes easily understandable.

• What results did the actions produce?

• What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your goals?

• Was it a successful outcome? If not, what did you learn from the experience?

Keep the situation and task parts brief. Concentrate on the action and the result. If the result was not entirely successful describe what you learned from this and what you would do differently next time. Make sure you focus on your strengths.