Sentencing and Parole Policy (up to three posts)
SEO
Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate
The Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate is recruiting permanently for three SEO roles across the Sentencing and Parole Policy Unit. 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 Sentencing and Parole Policy Unit
The Sentencing and Parole Policy Unit is at the very heart of MoJ’s work to deliver the government’s priorities on how the criminal justice system deals with offenders. The team covers a ranges of issues - leading on custodial sentencing, non-custodial sentencing, policy sponsorship of the Sentencing Council, and dangerous offenders, each of which deal with a varied portfolio of work with high ministerial interest.
We are looking for motivated and experienced candidates to join a welcoming and supportive team. The roles are fast paced, intellectually challenging, politically high profile and exciting and give candidates the opportunity to work on areas which will make a real difference to how offenders are dealt with by the criminal justice system for years to come.
The role
We have three roles (SEO) across the team. Roles are varied and successful candidates are likely to need to be flexible and work across different portfolios according to business need but the role/s will potentially involve:
- Working on/towards legislation (primary and secondary): sentencing policy is heavily legislation focused.
- Leading on transformative and strategic policy projects, for example sentencing projects relating to prison demand, prolific offenders and/or reform of the sentencing framework.
- Managing ad hoc policy work (for example the non-custodial team was heavily involved in the waste crime action plan earlier this year).
- Engagement and collaboration with colleagues across other Government Departments and agencies.
- Managing a busy schedule of business as usual work (PQs, correspondence, briefing and ad hoc ministerial requests).
- Working ly with other policy teams and operational colleagues to identify how the sentencing framework is operating and consider improvements.
Current priorities within the unit include:
- A significant focus on non-custodial sentencing, including a policy review of financial penalties and ongoing work to ensure that courts have the powers to impose fines more flexibly and proportionately.
- Delivering substantial reforms to the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to improve access for victims; an area with high ministerial interest and requiring cross-government working with the Home Office, CPS and Attorney General’s Office as well as with the Victims’ Commissioner and directly with victims.
- Implementing legislative changes to the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence and working with HMPPS on measures to support those serving the sentence to progress towards release from prison and licence termination.
- Managing MoJ’s policy sponsorship of the Sentencing Council, which has been subject to sustained media and parliamentary interest over the past year, culminating in recent legislative reforms (which the unit led on) in the Sentencing Act 2026 to introduce requirements for the Council to obtain formal approval of its annual business plans and definitive sentencing guidelines before publication.
- Leading on custodial sentence reform, including developing cohort-specific options to tailor sentencing approaches that balance public protection and rehabilitation
Skills and Experience
The ideal candidate would have the following key skills and experience:
Essential:
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, able to produce high quality briefing and reports, and synthesise complex topics for the target audience.
- Ability to work ly with analysts and lawyers to unpick tricky policy issues and develop solutions at pace.
- Ability to work independently with strong planning and organisational skills, with excellent attention to detail.
- Ability to manage a varied portfolio of work with strong time management skills and a successful track record of working on fast-paced tasks to strict deadlines.
- Ability to adapt and work effectively in a changing landscape.
Desirable:
- Knowledge of the criminal justice system and sentencing framework would be an advantage
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 750 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 (see Annex A for more information):
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 Seeing the Big Picture behaviour. 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.
Behaviours:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Making effective decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at pace
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 July 2026.
Contact information
Please do get in touch with [email protected] if you would like to know more about the role or what it is like working in our team
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.
