Job title: Judicial Payroll Officer

Directorate: CFO - Chief Financial Officer

Workstream: Judicial Pay and Expenses Team (JPET)

About us

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Our roles support our service users and colleagues, where people and businesses access potentially life-changing justice.  We’re looking for individuals who are committed to public service and want to make a difference in people’s lives in delivering justice. If you’re interested in developing a career with a real purpose, please apply.

About the role

The Judicial Pay and Expenses team is part of the Chief Financial Officer Directorate. The team administers the judicial payrolls, ensuring that judicial office holders are remunerated at the correct rates, be they salaried, fee-paid or non-legal office holders in the Courts and Tribunals. The Finance Support Centre manages the fee-paid payrolls. The Access Expense database holds fee and expense information and generates the fee-paid and salaried expenses payrolls.

Your role as the Judicial Payroll Officer encompasses several key aspects (but not limited to):

The key purpose of the role is to:

• Perform on-boarding and off-boarding of Salaried Judicial to the payroll.

• Perform checks and reconciliation of Salaried Judicial payroll.

• Maintain team logs and answering queries in timely manner.

• Liaising with colleagues with HMCTS and MoJ and the Judiciary.

• Liaising with external third parties for payroll and pension.

Key responsibilities

Operations

• Preparation of the month closedown. Reconciliation of the Higher Judiciary payroll and approving the monthly funding request.

• Responsible for signing the funding request and send to HM Treasury and National Audit Office.

• Reconciliation of Lower Judiciary payroll. Checking that all payroll instructions have been actioned correctly and raising/resolving any queries/calculations with payroll provider.

• Dealing with correspondence from team mailbox and personal in mailbox in accordance with team processes and governance.

• Logging all new appointments and promotions.

• Maintaining the teamwork logs.

• Primary Point of Contact (PPC) for all audit queries. Deal with all audit queries from the Nation Audit Office and Internal Audit. This includes providing data and evidence as required and attending meetings with NAO as required. Also deal with indirect audit requests from HMCTS who require evidence/information in response to an audit query.

• Daily liaison with HEO on working days to review incoming work, discuss and agree responses and identify workload priorities.

• Providing financial references.

• Providing support, advice, and information to MoJ/HMCTS colleagues and External agencies, which will include Judicial Liaison Officers, HMCTS Judicial Pay & Expenses Team, Judicial Office, Judicial Policy Team, MoJ Judicial Pensions Team, Payroll, Non-Legal Member Pension providers, and the Judiciary.

• Working with and supporting other EO’s with Fee Paid Onboarding & Offboarding processes, and management of the Non-Legal Member Pension mailbox. Liaising with the other EO’s to plan and agree shared work responsibilities on a daily basis. Provide training and support as required.

Communicating with the judiciary, other court and tribunal users and representatives of other agencies and organisations

• Maintain effective working relationships with the judiciary, supporting agencies, voluntary and user groups. Work with partner agencies to improve the level of service offered to users.

• Providing guidance to judicial office holders.

• Provide feedback to staff, judiciary and other stakeholders on process improvement and performance against targets.

• Think beyond own area of responsibility, considering wider policy and organisational implications of issues.

Team leadership

• Contribute and participate in the management of the team; role model HMCTS values, and apply policies and procedures (including diversity, attendance and discipline).

• Assign responsibilities for action and monitor progress against plans.

• Identify staff potential and develop in line with business and individual needs.

• Ensure that performance management and reward & recognition systems are utilised effectively throughout area of responsibility, ensuring consistent standards through benchmarking, and encouraging and rewarding good ideas and creativity.

• Be responsible for health and safety issues for the team and their immediate working environment.

• Take a lead in employee engagement activities to maintain good working relationships with team members and to improve service delivery and staff morale / motivation.

• Ensure staff are aware of HMCTS strategic objectives/and or updated in relation to corporate messages.

Who are we looking for? (Person Specification)

The ideal candidate for this position should demonstrate:

Essential

• Excellent communications skills: both written and verbal tasks.

• Adaptable and willing, with the ability to work in a culture of change; continually improving (products, processes, and priorities) to meet the current and future needs of the organisation.

• Excellent IT Skills particularly Excel

• Analytical skills for the investigation and resolution of complex issues

Desirable

• Experience working with payrolls is desirable

• Experience working with power-bi

The post holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which aligns with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

How to apply

Application Stage

Please submit:

• Statement of suitability demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria (up to 500 words)

• Behaviour examples illustrating the Civil Service Behaviour: - Communicating and Influencing (up to 250 words).

Please ensure you cover both ‘what’ you do but also ‘how’ you do it. (i.e., the effective skills, knowledge & experience needed to undertake the role)

In the event of a high volume of applications, the panel may perform an initial sift based on the Lead Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.

Interview Stage

If successful at sift, you will be invited to attend a remote interview, via Microsoft teams. During your interview, you will be assessed against the following Civil Service Success Profiles which will include:

• Questions in relation to the following Civil Service Behaviours:

  • Communicating and Influencing

  • Managing a Quality Service

  • Working Together

• Strengths will also be assessed however these are not shared in advance.

Further details

Working pattern

Full time only - This is a full-time position only due to the nature of the role.

Travel requirements

There will be a requirement to travel occasionally to any HMCTS site in line with business needs.

Opportunities for development

HMCTS is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Skilled Worker Sponsorship

From 22nd July 2025, the Government increased the salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas. The starting salary for this role falls below the general salary threshold for sponsorship.  

The Department cannot consider sponsoring you for this role unless you have held a Skilled Worker visa continuously since before 4 April 2024, you qualify for relevant tradeable points, or you meet other criteria where a lower salary can be considered. Therefore, if you believe you meet the eligibility criteria (in whatever way possible) and you have received a provisional job offer, please raise this during your vetting checks.

If you are applying for this role and you do not meet the new eligibility criteria for sponsorship, you will need to consider your options for obtaining and/or maintaining your right to work in the UK in light of these changes. Successful applicants must ensure they have and maintain the legal right to live and work in the Civil Service and in the United Kingdom.

The Department will continue to comply with UK Immigration Rules applied in the UK and Civil Service.

You can read more about Skilled Worker visas and the eligibility criteria here.

About our benefits

We reward our people for their hard work and commitment. We have a number of family

friendly and flexible working polices that will help you achieve a healthy work-life balance. In addition, we offer a range of employee benefits which include generous annual leave, a highly competitive contributory pension scheme, childcare benefits, season ticket and bicycle loans.

Proud to Serve. Proud to keep justice going.