27807 - Economist Vacancies in the Data & Analytical Services Directorate
Overview
The Ministry of Justice Data and Analytical Directorate is seeking a number of economists to fill our current and future vacancies. Candidates must be a member of the Government Economics Service to be eligible to apply.
The post is open to Band Bb/SEO Economists on level transfer and other eligible staff on promotion.
Location
Successful applicants can choose to be based at 10 South Colonnade, London or 5 Wellington Place Leeds. In addition, flexible working arrangements are available between 102 Petty France, MoJ Hubs and home. Those opting to be based in Leeds will be expected to travel to London as required.
Interviews are likely to take place Mid-August 2019 and will be held in London.
We will keep a merit list for a year for those who successfully pass the interview board but who are not offered a post.
Background
We are seeking to recruit high quality skilled and motivated individuals to join our Data & Analytical Services Directorate (DASD) which sits at the heart of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) providing analytical support across a diverse, high profile and exciting agenda. We work in a dynamic and fast paced context and our skills are in heavy demand across the MoJ. We are a cross-disciplinary directorate with a mixture of social researchers, operational researchers, statisticians and economists structured in five units facing customers across the whole of the MoJ.
About MoJ
The Ministry of Justice is one of the largest government departments, employing around 76,000 people, with a budget of approximately £7.4 billion. The justice system is a vital public service that changes people’s lives and our work spans criminal, civil, administrative and family justice. Each year millions of people across the UK use our services - including courts, tribunals, probation and prisons in England and Wales. We are all likely to encounter the justice system at some point in our lives, either because we have been a witness to or victim of a crime, to protect and enforce our rights, or to settle disputes.
Analysts play a crucial role in the achievement of the Ministry’s goals. We provide the data, insight and evidence to inform good policy, operational and investment choices, monitor and evaluate progress and performance, and demonstrate outcomes. There is a huge appetite within the Ministry for more, better and innovative analysis, which is driving us to recruit.
Why work for the Ministry of Justice?
- Flexible working arrangements – including compressed hours, flexi-time, working for home or commuter hubs outside of London
- Regular job rotations to broaden experience – there are regular optional rotations for analysts of all levels to expand experience and opportunities
- Analysis is at the centre of the Department’s decision making – with the move to a ‘Data Driver Department’ and a Secretary of State keen for all decisions to be evidence driven, your analysis will be key in influencing decisions
- See the frontline and what your work is influencing – regular opportunities to visit prisons and courts to better understand the areas your analysis is affecting
- Range of new areas of work and software – with the move to a more ‘Data Driven Department’ there will be many new areas of analysis to develop and a better range of analytical software to gain experience with
About the Data & Analytical Services Directorate (DASD)
MoJ provides an exciting and dynamic environment for analysts with considerable opportunity to make a difference. DASD comprises over 200 analysts working in all the main analytical professionals providing support, challenge and advice to policy and operational colleagues and Ministers right across MoJ and beyond. We are looking for experienced analysts who can work flexibly and take personal responsibility for the work they lead on. This work will be challenging and offers a wide range of opportunities to develop your skills and careers and make a difference. To respond well to the wide range of analytical needs across MoJ and to provide a greater range of career development opportunities, all analysts within DASD work flexibility across a wide variety of tasks in different subject areas across the range of Ministry’s interests.
What Types of Roles Are There in the Ministry of Justice?
Three typical DASD Band Bb/SEO Economist roles are described below and give a flavour of the type of work that successful candidates could be asked to undertake. The vacant analytical roles available change rapidly in MoJ as we need to respond rapidly to emerging priorities and needs. Successful candidates will be given details of the specific current vacancies available at the completion of this recruitment process.
Example Job Role 1:
The civil justice system deals with parties resolving disputes amongst themselves, as opposed to criminal justice where the state forms one of the parties. These disputes can include those where the parties breach contracts or impose uncompensated costs on each other due to negligent personal injury. Such disputes can be settled by the parties themselves or through litigation in the courts.
The role will involve working on several different civil justice priorities at the same time, ranging from personal injury (e.g. tackling the high number of whiplash claims), reducing the costs of litigation and moving cases to the courts best able to hear them.
- Producing analysis to feed into Impact Assessments as required across a range of civil justice issues. Due to the complicated nature of some of the policies this has involved working closely with RPC and BRU, including presenting early analysis.
- Supporting policy colleagues as the current Civil Liability Bill proceeds through Parliament.
- Providing direct analytical support to a number of policy teams, such as initial costing of policy options, further options appraisal, and monitoring the impact of reforms. Influencing policy decisions based on this analysis will be essential
- Ongoing work looking at expanding the civil justice evidence base. For example, on the government’s current Whiplash reforms, the team gathered detailed data from a number of external stakeholders.
Example Job Role 2:
The Ministry of Justice seeks to cover the costs of the civil court system via charging fees to court users. These fees are usually set at a level which covers the costs to the courts of dealing with the case (cost recovery) or, in certain circumstances, contribute to the wider cost of the court and tribunal system.
The role will involve the following:
- Supporting on-going court fee reforms by modelling fee regime options and ensuring that their wider costs and benefits have been identified, assessed and represented correctly in Impact Assessments and ministerial submissions. Managing a number of internal stakeholders and working with teams across ASD.
- Support wider policy work on court fees by assessing the impact of the most recent reforms on court user behaviour to establish if there has been any effect on case volumes and fee income as a result of changes.
- Other tasks include providing ad-hoc analytical support to colleagues across ASD and to analysts in other departments with assessing the extent to which other policies might have an impact on the civil court system.
Example Job Role 3:
Many areas of MoJ work will be impacted by the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) including the future prospects of the legal services sector, the size of the prison population and overall departmental resource allocation issues. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for high quality analytical input from across the MoJ as whole including from policy and operational officials and analysts located in other parts of ASD. There is also the need to coordinate with analysts working in other MoJ bodies such as HMCTS and with other government departments such as DExEU, DIT and the Home Office.
The role will involve varied and challenging areas of work which will evolve over time. At present, we expect the work to involve aspects of the following:
- Developing an understanding of how EU Exit might impact the legal services sector and how different negotiation positions will have different implications for the industry;
- Providing insight as to how the legal services industry might take full advantage of global opportunities post-Exit, and providing analytical support for negotiations in Brussels;
- Delivering analytical support for on-going work to facilitate to incorporation of aspects of EU legislation into UK law;
- Working with analytical colleagues from AJAS and HMCTS to ensure EU Exit impacts are accurately included in work to support operational and policy staff in these areas;
- Supporting colleagues from ASD to ensure EU Exit impacts are included in the full range of forecasting and modelling work the Division carries out.
Competency Details
You will be assessed against the Civil Service Competencies listed below during the selection process. These competencies are as specified in the Civil Service Competency Framework. This is available online at:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Collaborating & Partnering
- Delivering at Pace
As well as the three civil service competencies stated above, you are also asked to provide two sets of written evidence of professional competence. See details below:
Professional Competency (1)
Please provide a written example of the following competency:
Applies quantitative analytical methods effectively to drive insights and evidence that influence decision making and add value:
- Identifies, gathers and brings a range of often large data sets together, identifying and resolving quality issues
- Uses appropriate methods and techniques to analyse the data to gain insight and evidence that solves problems or questions
- Presents findings and insights persuasively so customers engage and understand the evidence and use it to influence decisions
- Anticipates potential further uses of data wider than solving initial problem, and can raise awareness and engagement in value of quantitative approaches
Professional Competency (2)
Please provide a written example demonstrating the competencies relevant to the GES Technical Framework Standards (as detailed below).
Please note that several the analyst competencies may overlap with the MoJ competencies listed above. We therefore recommend that in providing written evidence for the analyst competency, candidates focus on the technical and methodology aspects of the competencies that are specific to the profession noting that these posts require a quantitative analyst.
We will use evidence presented for the MoJ competencies in assessing the wider skills candidates have.
Application of knowledge
- Apply economic tools and techniques. Synthesise evidence from a range of sources critically assessing quality, as appropriate. Particular reference should be made to the Green and Magenta Books that contribute to the policy/ROAMEF cycle.
- Provide expert advice to all, including senior officials, with regards to appraisal, impact assessments, evidence based business cases, and evaluation.
- Apply techniques such as monetisation and discounting as outlined by the Green Book, in order to apply Cost Benefit Analysis. Critically assess shortcomings and where appropriate suggest improvements & develop methodologies.
- Thorough expert knowledge of techniques to establish/identify robust counterfactuals in order to effectively measure policy impact and causation, as detailed in the Magenta Book
- Have an in-depth theoretical and empirical knowledge of how markets function and market failure, being able to advise senior officials on the impact that various policy interventions might have. Understanding the role incentives play in forming rational decisions, and how markets affect and reflect incentives of economic agents.
- Lead scoping work programmes, management of internal or external analytical projects and potentially building links with academia.
Analysis of data
- Be able to analyse and handle data for the purposes of producing evidence for policy advice.
- Work with, quality assure and understand economic models and interpret output data for the purposes of providing supporting evidence.
- Source, handle and process data sets based on best evidence/economic theory to form estimates about outcomes of likely policies. Become expert on these.
- Be able to explain all assumptions feeding into the model, ensure that they are transparently presented with results and that key risks and sensitivities are assessed.
- Apply econometric knowledge to understand how parameters used in models are estimated; be aware of issues relating to model specification and efficiency and how they impact. Proactively explore and propose appropriate techniques/analysis.
- Be proficient in using Excel and other relevant software packages
Effective communication
- Provide effective and appropriate written and oral communication to colleagues and stakeholders from many different backgrounds.
- Build effective working relationships with policy colleagues, including at times some senior colleagues and other analytical professions, to facilitate continuous discourse and build mutual understanding of how to work together.
- Communicate effectively with non-economists, conveying the relevance and impact of economic concepts without the use of specialist terminology.
- Be able to tailor the details of their communications, ensuring that it is appropriate to the needs to the audience.
- Be able to provide wider socio-economic and political contexts that might impact and influence the appropriate policy response.
Applicants Invited for Interview
You will be required to give a 5-minute presentation at interview. Details of this will be sent to those candidates who are invited for interview.
For Further Information:
If you would like to discuss this advert in more detail please feel free to contact:
Alex Wilks – Deputy Director & Chief Economist
Alex.Wilks@justice.gov.uk or 07976 640418
Andrew Meads – Deputy Chief Economist
Working Arrangements & Further Information
Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.
Flexible working hours
The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices.
Benefits
The MoJ offers a range of benefits:
Annual Leave
Generous allowances for paid holiday starting at 25 days per year, and rising as your service increases. There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Pension
The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.
Training
The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.
Support
- A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
- Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits,retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
- For any moves across the Civil Service may have implications on your ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers
- Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
- Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.
Networks
The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity.
There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Eligibility
Staff on fixed term appointments must have been recruited through fair and open competition.
23/07/2019, 23:55 hours.
If you require any assistance please call 0845 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or email moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@sscl.gse.gov.uk Please quote job ref 27807.
For Further Information:
If you would like to discuss this advert in more detail please feel free to contact:
Alex Wilks – Deputy Director & Chief Economist
Alex.Wilks@justice.gov.uk or 07976 640418
Andrew Meads – Deputy Chief Economist
To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why.
For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).
If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:
- You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
- You were studying abroad
- You were living overseas with parents
In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.
Candidate Information
You may be required to provide statements describing your skills and experience relevant to each of the selection criteria. We recommend that you structure any examples as Situation, Task, Action and Result. For more information about the recruitment process and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.
Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ
In the event of a large number of applications, we reserve the right to undertake the following processes:
- An automated online test where a benchmark must be passed to progress;
- A sift on the lead selection criteria. If this happens, the lead criteria will be the first one listed in the advert.
During the selection process, you may be asked to undertake an additional assessment (such as written test). If this is applicable you will be notified of this when you are invited to interview.
Please provide a written example of the following competency:
Applies quantitative analytical methods effectively to drive insights and evidence that influence decision making and add value:
• Identifies, gathers and brings a range of often large data sets together, identifying and resolving quality issues
• Uses appropriate methods and techniques to analyse the data to gain insight and evidence that solves problems or questions
• Presents findings and insights persuasively so customers engage and understand the evidence and use it to influence decisions
• Anticipates potential further uses of data wider than solving initial problem, and can raise awareness and engagement in value of quantitative approaches
Please provide a written example demonstrating the competencies relevant to the GES Technical Framework Standards (as detailed below).
Please note that several the analyst competencies may overlap with the MoJ competencies listed above. We therefore recommend that in providing written evidence for the analyst competency, candidates focus on the technical and methodology aspects of the competencies that are specific to the profession noting that these posts require a quantitative analyst.
We will use evidence presented for the MoJ competencies in assessing the wider skills candidates have.
Application of knowledge
• Apply economic tools and techniques. Synthesise evidence from a range of sources critically assessing quality, as appropriate. Particular reference should be made to the Green and Magenta Books that contribute to the policy/ROAMEF cycle.
• Provide expert advice to all, including senior officials, with regards to appraisal, impact assessments, evidence based business cases, and evaluation.
• Apply techniques such as monetisation and discounting as outlined by the Green Book, in order to apply Cost Benefit Analysis. Critically assess shortcomings and where appropriate suggest improvements & develop methodologies.
• Thorough expert knowledge of techniques to establish/identify robust counterfactuals in order to effectively measure policy impact and causation, as detailed in the Magenta Book
• Have an in-depth theoretical and empirical knowledge of how markets function and market failure, being able to advise senior officials on the impact that various policy interventions might have. Understanding the role incentives play in forming rational decisions, and how markets affect and reflect incentives of economic agents.
• Lead scoping work programmes, management of internal or external analytical projects and potentially building links with academia.
Analysis of data
• Be able to analyse and handle data for the purposes of producing evidence for policy advice.
• Work with, quality assure and understand economic models and interpret output data for the purposes of providing supporting evidence.
• Source, handle and process data sets based on best evidence/economic theory to form estimates about outcomes of likely policies. Become expert on these.
• Be able to explain all assumptions feeding into the model, ensure that they are transparently presented with results and that key risks and sensitivities are assessed.
• Apply econometric knowledge to understand how parameters used in models are estimated; be aware of issues relating to model specification and efficiency and how they impact. Proactively explore and propose appropriate techniques/analysis.
• Be proficient in using Excel and other relevant software packages
Effective communication
• Provide effective and appropriate written and oral communication to colleagues and stakeholders from many different backgrounds.
• Build effective working relationships with policy colleagues, including at times some senior colleagues and other analytical professions, to facilitate continuous discourse and build mutual understanding of how to work together.
• Communicate effectively with non-economists, conveying the relevance and impact of economic concepts without the use of specialist terminology.
• Be able to tailor the details of their communications, ensuring that it is appropriate to the needs to the audience.
• Be able to provide wider socio-economic and political contexts that might impact and influence the appropriate policy response.
We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.
Application form stage assessments
Interview stage assessments
A Great Place to Work for Veterans
The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
· UK nationals
· nationals of the Republic of Ireland
· nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
· individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
· Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
This Vacancy is closed to applications.