Policy Advisor for Domestic Human Rights Team

EO

IRCPD

The International, Rights and Constitutional Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for an EO policy advisor. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Location:

Successful candidates will have the option to be based at one of the following locations:

• 102 Petty France, London

• 5 Wellington Place, Leeds

Occasional travel between the two locations may be required. We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your base location (102 Petty France or 5 Wellington Place Leeds).

Ways of Working

At the MoJ we believe and promote alternative ways of working, these roles are available as:

• Full-time, part-time or the option to job share

• Flexible working patterns

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.  

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ)

MoJ is the largest government department, employing over 90,000 people with a budget of approximately £10 billion. Each year, millions of people use our services across the UK - including at 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

The Work of the International, Rights and Constitutional Policy Directorate

The International, Rights and Constitutional Policy Directorate (IRCPD) is a busy directorate with a wide-ranging policy portfolio covering human rights, international justice, devolution, the Crown Dependencies, and the wider corporate functions for the MoJ’s Policy Group. We have responsibility for the international work of the department, including setting the direction and priorities for MoJ’s international work. We have responsibility for the human rights framework in the UK, and internationally in relation to our human rights obligations with the United Nations and the Council of Europe. We also have responsibility for constitutional policy, which includes managing our relationships with the Crown Dependencies and the devolved administrations.   

The Rights and Public Law Division has policy responsibility for the UK’s human rights framework, both domestically through the Human Rights Act, and internationally through the European Convention on Human Rights, and a number United Nations conventions. The Division also oversees justice business in the Council of Europe, acting as a centre of excellence for the department. 

Policy advisor - the role

The domestic human rights policy team holds policy responsibility across Government for the UK’s domestic human rights framework under the Human Rights Act 1998, and the wider Rights and Public Law Division oversees several of the UK’s international human rights treaties. We work across Government to ensure that the UK’s human rights framework is fit for purpose in line with Government priorities, overseeing a coherent cross-government approach which upholds our international obligations and the constitutional principles of the UK.   

The role will involve fast-paced work to meet departmental aims and deadlines, collaborating with others in the team, in wider MoJ, as well as with other government departments, in a mutually supportive and collaborative team environment. It will present an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of human rights across Government.   

This role will involve providing cross-team policy and administrative support on a range of rights-related issues, feeding into briefings for senior leaders and Ministers, supporting external stakeholder engagement and communications.  

We are encouraging applications both from individuals currently working in policy roles and those looking to make the move from administrative or operational roles into the policy profession. With a mixture of the core policy building blocks and the opportunity to take on more stretching responsibilities this is an interesting and varied opportunity for a first policy role.   

The role will be based in the domestic human rights team but will provide surge support across other teams in the division with responsibility for wider rights activities including stakeholder engagement, and international rights treaties under the UN and the Council of Europe.  

Key responsibilities for this role are: 

• Monitoring developments in domestic human rights policy.  

• Shared management of MoJ’s Human Rights mailbox. 

• Administrative management and drafting of correspondence, Parliamentary Questions, and Freedom of Information (FoI) requests. 

• Management of briefing products across the team, including standard lines and justice oral questions packs, ensuring these are up to date and deployable by team members.  

• Leading on delivering effective organisation of digital folders for the team. 

• Providing written and oral briefing for senior colleagues and stakeholders. 

• Working with others in the team on Ministerial submissions and other policy documents. 

• Supporting the wider policy and engagement work of the rights policy division, as required, including administrative support at busy times, for example during international dialogues. 

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.  

• Ability to build relationships quickly across internal and external stakeholders. 

• Attention to detail. 

• Ability to work flexibly to respond to deadlines, manage competing demands, and prioritise where appropriate.   

• Proactive attitude and a drive for learning and personal development.  

• Strong organisational skills and experience of filing and record keeping.  

Desirable:

• Interest in the justice system, human rights and/or working internationally.

• Experience of project delivery and governance.

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

You will be asked to provide a CV during the application process 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.

Behaviours

During the application process you will be asked to provide an example of how you have met the following behaviour(s) (see Annex A for more information):

• Communicating and Influencing

• Working Together

• Making Effective Decisions

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

Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the Statement of Suitability and the lead behaviour Communicating and Influencing. Successful applicants will then be invited to an interview, testing both behaviours and strengths.

Candidates invited to Interview

Please note that interviews will be carried out remotely.

You will be assessed against the following behaviours at the interview stage where you will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated them. In addition, you will also be asked strength-based questions.

Behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing

• Working Together

• Making Effective Decisions

It may help to use one or more examples of a piece of work you have completed or a situation you have been in and use the WHO or STAR model to explain:   

• WHO - What it was? How you approached the work/situation? What the Outcomes were, what did you achieve? Or

• STAR - What was the Situation? What were the Tasks? What Action did you take?  What were the Results of your actions?

Strengths:

It is difficult to prepare for strength type questions. However, you can think through your answers, focus on your achievements and aspects you enjoy and decide how these can be applied in the organisation and role. While strengths questions are shorter and we do not expect a full STAR response, the panel is interested in your first reaction to the question and information or reasoning to support this. Further information on Civil Service Strengths can be found via this link Success Profiles: Strengths - GOV.UK

Interviews are expected to take place in August 2026.

Contact information  

Please do get in touch if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team. Maya Moss, maya.moss@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.