This vacancy is only available to existing Civil Servant employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Please review the "Eligibility" section before you apply.
The national salary range is £42,914 - £46,182, London salary range is £49,325 - £53,081. Your salary will be dependent on your base location
Working Pattern
Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share, Flexible Working
Vacancy Approach
Cross Government
National
Region
National
Closing Date
22-Sep-2026
Post Type
Permanent
Civil Service Grade
SEO
Number of jobs available
1
Reserve List
12 Months
Job ID
21951
Job description
Release Analysis, Youth Justice and Offender Policy Directorate, Ministry of Justice
Do you have the passion, values, and ability to help us solve the biggest problems of the justice system?
We are advertising for this permanent SEO analyst role within the Ministry of Justice. This is an exciting time to join the team in a fast-paced and fascinating policy area which has recently attracted significant public, parliamentary, and ministerial interest through the implementation of the Sentencing Act, and in particular the Progression “early release scheme” policy.
The postholder will become part of the Recall, Release, Parole & Prisoners (R2P2) team, part of Sentencing and Offender Management Analysis (SOMA). There are currently four G7 led teams in the R2P2 team providing analytical support to the recall, release, parole and other policy teams. We are a multi-disciplinary team of statisticians, operational researchers and social researchers and provide data and analysis to support policy development.
This role sits within the Release Analysis G7 team. The team develops analysis of policies to reduce prison demand to tackle the ongoing prison capacity crisis, to inform and support the Capacity Strategic Forum, as well as providing insight on the types of offenders being managed in custody. The team is very reactive to new and urgent pieces of work, and act as liaisons to our policy colleagues.
Roles are open to:
Existing analysts from professions (GORS/GSS/GSR) either on level transfer or on promotion.
Due to the role(s) being analytical, those successful in recruitment will be eligible for a specialist allowance following an analytical interview based on the following values:
Candidates must be able to show the relevant experience and skills and must meet the criteria for entry:
SEO grade:
· You have significant work experience evidencing use of data and/or analytical skills. Time spent on an analytical PhD can count towards this.
We welcome applications from candidates based across the UK. Candidates will have the option of being based in the Leeds or London HQ offices (with flexible working arrangements available) or your nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office: see this map for more details.
Alternative locations may be available and will be discussed and agreed on the completion of background checks.
Interviews are likely to take place from October 2026 and will be held via MS Teams. We will keep a merit list for a year for those who successfully pass the interview board but who are not offered a post.
In SOMA, we provide high quality analysis to support policy and operational colleagues, ensuring that our seniors and ministers are able to make robust and evidenced decisions affecting offenders, victims, HMPPS, and the public.
We are a multi-disciplinary team of around 50 staff that sit with the YJOP directorate, allowing close and collaborative working with our policy colleagues on areas with high ministerial interest. We work in a dynamic and fast-paced context, and have directly influenced and supported some of the most impactful changes to the Criminal Justice System within the past few decades. Our community is made up of analysts and specialists including: Social Researchers, Economists, Operational Researchers, and Statisticians.
Why work in our team?
In SOMA, we want all our people to feel valued for who they are and for the work they do. We provide a warm, inclusive place to work and offer a wide range of flexibilities and benefits as part of our people offer to reward our staff.
The role holder will be responsible for providing analytical advice on how proposed policy measures affect prison capacity, to enable ministers to make business critical decisions and help to shape policies pre-implementation.
In the immediate term, the team are focused on the Sentencing Act and are responsible for analysis supporting the progression model measure. This involves:
Looking past the Sentencing Act, the team provides analysis for other key release measures. For example, the team has previously worked on End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL), SDS40, and Home Detention Curfew (HDC365). These are very high-profile work areas with significant ministerial and No.10 interest.
The role will involve the following:
The following experience and skills will be required:
The successful candidate should have the following skills:
You’ll need to submit an anonymised work history and Statement of Suitability as part of your application. You will not be considered if you do not provide both.
Your work history should meet the following criteria: well structured, succinct, and written in clear language.
Your Statement of Suitability should be no more than 750 words and should give us examples of how your skills and experience match those needed for this role. Consider giving examples that cover all the requirements in the ‘Who you are’ section and use work you have completed to demonstrate how you meet each one.
There will be an initial sift of applicants through comparing submitted evidence against the ‘Who you are’ bullets. This usually takes two weeks, depending on the number of applications.
Those who make it through the initial sift will be invited to a Civil Service Success Profile interview. In the Civil Service we use Success Profiles to help us find the right person for the job. We will be using a mixture of methods to assess your abilities, strengths, experience, technical skills, and behaviours. We highly recommend learning about Success Profiles and using the Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection (STARR) framework when structuring your answers.
The highest scoring candidates that pass the interview will be offered the role. The whole process can take up to a month.
You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework at interview stage:
· Communicating and Influencing
· Delivering at Pace
· Working Together
Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade.
For existing badged analysts from GSS, GORS, GSR professions, as well as the three civil service behaviours stated above, you will be assessed on two sets of professional competencies at interview.
For external (non-Civil Service) candidates (and unbadged candidates within the Civil Service), as well as the three civil service behaviours stated above, you will be assessed on your analytical knowledge, experience and abilities, and the impact of your analytical work.
· Professional Competency (1) Knowledge & Skills
o GSS - Data Analysis.
o GORS - Knowledge and application of OR Skills and Techniques.
o GSR - Knowledge and application of GSR technical skills
o GSS - Presenting and disseminating data effectively.
o GORS - Achieving impact with analysis.
o GSR - using and promoting social research
For more information regarding Professional Competency (2) please refer to the analytical profession internet links below. Please note that some aspect of the professional competency may overlap with the MoJ competencies listed above. We therefore recommend that in providing evidence for the professional competency, candidates focus on the technical and methodology aspects of the competencies that are specific to the profession. We will use evidence presented for the MoJ competencies in assessing the wider skills candidates have.
Government Statistician Group (GSG): Further information, including a user guide, can be found within the link below:
GORS_Technical_Framework_2025.pdf
Government Social Research Service (GSR): Further information can be found within the link below:
Government Operational Research Service (GORS): Further information can be found within the link below:
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.
The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.
Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.
For nationally advertised roles: All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale. This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) – See Map. All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity).
For current MoJ employees, your base location will need to be changed to the nearest viable office (to your home postcode), either at a HQ building, JCC or JSO within the National Office Network and moved its location’s respective pay scale (any legacy arrangements/locations will need to be amended).
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.
MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.
All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.
The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.
The MoJ offers a range of benefits:
Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.
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.
The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.
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.
Staff on fixed term appointments must have been recruited through fair and open competition.
Vacancies advertised “cross-government” are only open to all Civil Service employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) who were appointed on merit following a fair and open competition; or were appointed to a permanent post through an exception in the Civil Service Commissioners' rules.
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. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order
As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.
You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the TBS Recruitment Enquiries Team.
For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please watch our animated videos.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ is committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ is able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidates will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles.
Contact Information
If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
Please quote the job reference 21951
If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
Please quote the job reference
Allowance
Specialist allowance
Due to the role(s) being analytical, those successful in recruitment will be eligible for a specialist allowance following an analytical interview based on the following values:
SEO London: £500
SEO National: £1500
Behaviours Application Form Question Word Limit
250
Communicating and Influencing
We will assess your experience for this role via the following methods
CV or Work History, Experience Questions
Experience Questions Application Form Question Word Limit
250
Evidence of Experience
CV or Work History, Experience Questions
Interview Dates
Expected October 2026
Communicating and Influencing
Delivering at Pace
Working Together
o GSS - Data Analysis.
o GORS - Knowledge and application of OR Skills and Techniques.
o GSR - Knowledge and application of GSR technical skills
o GSS - Presenting and disseminating data effectively.
o GORS - Achieving impact with analysis.
o GSR - using and promoting social research
Which assessment methods will be used?
Presentation
Security Clearance (SC)
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
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