Grade 7
Criminal Justice System Strategy and Reform Directorate
The CJSSR Directorate is recruiting temporarily for Grade 7 Justice ID Policy Lead. This campaign is open to current civil servants on level transfer and suitable candidates on promotion.
The role is being offered on Detached Duty for staff within the Ministry of Justice or Loan terms for staff in HMPPS or from other government departments.
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 CJSSR Directorate
The Criminal Justice System Strategy and Reform Directorate has been established to strengthen the Department’s capacity to lead cross-system CJS reform.
Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts is clear that criminal justice must be treated as one system, not a set of disconnected organisations. The Review highlights the need for stronger system leadership, better data quality, improved interoperability, clearer accountability and a more coordinated approach to technology across the CJS. This role sits at the heart of that reform agenda.
Justice ID is one of the Department’s most important cross-system digital and data reform priorities. Today, the same individual can exist as multiple, unlinked records across policing, courts, prisons and probation. This creates operational risk and inefficiency: staff spend time manually reconciling records, decisions are made using partial or inconsistent information, and errors can create serious public protection risks. Justice ID will provide the building blocks to help staff consistently identify and track the same individual from first contact with policing, through the courts, into custody and into the community. This is about more than introducing a new identifier. It combines reliable identification, better interoperability and improved data quality so that information follows the person through the system rather than being repeatedly recreated, lost or misaligned.
Justice ID is being delivered as part of the Connecting Criminal Justice Data Programme jointly with the Home Office.
We will use a test-and-learn approach to delivery, starting with a small number of high-value pilots that address real operational problems. One of the first areas of focus will be testing the use of fingerprint biometrics in courts and prisons, alongside the development of a cross-system biometrics plan with the Home Office.
This role will sit in Policy Group, within the CJS Reform and Implementation Division, but will be embedded day-to-day in Justice Data, part of Service Transformation Group. It is designed to act as a bridge between policy, digital, data and operations, ensuring Justice ID is shaped by robust policy thinking while remaining to practical implementation.
Justice ID Policy Lead - the role
You will be the first dedicated policy lead for Justice ID.
You will sit in Policy Group, within the CJS Reform and Implementation Division, but will be embedded day-to-day in Justice Data, part of Service Transformation Group. The role is designed to act as a bridge between policy, digital, data and operations, ensuring Justice ID is shaped by robust policy thinking while remaining to practical implementation.
T will be no team or line management responsibility initially. However, you will help identify what wider policy capability may be needed as Justice ID moves from discovery, to pilots, delivery and scaling.
You will be responsible for:
- Leading policy development for Justice ID, including the use of fingerprint biometrics across courts, prisons and probation, and developing practical policy positions on powers, legislation, guidance and operational change.
- Identifying and resolving the key policy issues that could affect delivery, including data protection, privacy, equalities, ethics, proportionality, public confidence and the impact on existing operating models.
- Working across MoJ and the wider CJS, including Home Office, CPS, policing and NPCC colleagues, to align policy perspectives.
- Building strong links across relevant MoJ policy areas, including courts, prisons, probation and victims’ policy, as well as data protection and legal.
- Providing clear advice to senior officials, ministers and the team, grounded in frontline reality, user needs, evidence from pilots and the trade-offs involved.
- Establishing how policy development and delivery should work within Justice ID, including identifying the wider policy capability the programme may need as it scales.
Skills and Experience
Essential
- Excellent strategic thinking skills, including the ability to set direction in a high-profile, complex and uncertain policy area.
- Experience engaging with stakeholders, with strong collaboration skills to bring together disparate views to reach a common consensus.
- Be confident in advising Ministers, senior officials and other departments, be politically astute in identifying and responding to sensitive issues and have an awareness of issues within the criminal justice system.
- Strong organisational and planning skills, ability to drive forward a broad portfolio of work and balance multiple workstreams.
- Demonstrated ability to work flexibly to set and meet deadlines, manage competing demands, and prioritise w appropriate.
Desirable
- An understanding of the criminal justice system and the challenges and issues facing both the criminal justice system and criminal courts in England and Wales.
- Experience working on policy or strategy related to digital, technology, data, identity, biometrics, privacy, data protection or information sharing.
- Experience working in or alongside a delivery programme, transformation programme or multidisciplinary 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
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):
- Working Together (250 words)
Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade:
CS Behaviours 2018
Should we receive a large number of applications, we will sift primarily on the lead behaviour of Working together. 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 w you will be asked to provide examples of how you have demonstrated them. In addition, you will also be asked strength-based questions. The interview may also include questions about how you would approach policy development in a multidisciplinary digital, data and delivery environment.
Behaviours:
- Working Together
- Making Effective Decisions
- Seeing The Big Picture w
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 .
Interviews are expected to take place at the end of July 2026/ beginning of 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. Please contact Jamie Barnett ([email protected]).
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.
- W are you?
- Who was t 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.
