Ministry of Justice

Policy Advisor for Bail and Remand

Grade: HEO

Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate

The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for a HEO policy advisor for bail and remand.

This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.

Candidates are reminded that to be eligible for this campaign; you must still be employed as a civil servant at the point of accepting the role.  If you resign or your FTA contract ends before you are made and accept an offer, you will become ineligible and you will be withdrawn from the process.

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

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 Prison Demand and Release Unit

The Prison Demand and Release Policy Team, in the Youth Justice and Offender Policy (YJOP) Directorate, plays a crucial role in addressing the prison capacity challenge.  We work in close partnership with HMPPS and other policy teams including the Custodial Options Taskforce, and work with legal and analytical teams to give ministers robust options that reduce demand.  We have a kind and supportive culture and work hard to make this a great place to work. We’re lucky to have high performing colleagues at all levels with diverse experience including of frontline delivery.

This team’s remit includes considering steps that could be taken to address the growing prison remand population. In the past year, the work of the Remand policy team has included delivering landmark changes to the Bail Act as part of the Sentencing Act. The growing remand population continues to be a key part of the prison capacity challenge and our work to address this challenge is ongoing. It is an area which has high ministerial and stakeholder attention.

Within this context, we are looking for a motivated self-starter to join a welcoming and supportive team. The role will give the successful candidate the chance to work on an area which will make a real difference to how offenders are dealt with by the criminal justice system for years to come.

Policy Advisor for Bail and Remand - the role

The Remand policy team is a small but genuinely supportive team and is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills and make a meaningful contribution to the prison capacity challenge.

In this role, you will provide policy support in deciding on future options to reduce the remand population, including bringing forward non-legislative solutions that might increase the use of bail over custodial remand. This will likely include engagement with external stakeholders, close work with analytical and legal colleagues, and supporting the G7 and SEO in developing options. We are looking for a self-starter who might be looking to use valuable skills and knowledge gained elsewhere in the criminal justice system, to transfer those to a policy role.

Although the work will be varied to respond to emerging priorities, it provides an opportunity to solidify the basics of policy-making, including advising ministers on correspondence and drafting PQs, with lots of exposure to senior management and operational partners.

Skills and Experience

The postholder will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:

Essential

• Strong time management and organisational skills and a successful track record of working on fast-paced tasks to strict deadlines.
• Good written and oral communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work effectively with colleagues in other teams, including operational colleagues, analysts, and lawyers to support development of policy solutions at pace.

Desirable

• Front-line experience in the criminal justice system

Additional Information

• 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.
• 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):

• 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 lead behaviour of Making Effective Decisions. 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.

At interview you will be assessed against behaviours 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:

The following Behaviours will be tested at interview:

• Making effective decisions
• Delivering at pace
• Seeing the big picture
• Communicating and influencing

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?

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

Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

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 during September 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.

Susannah Keogh, Susannah.keogh@justice.gov.uk