Deputy Director, Vulnerability Policy & Criminal Law

The Victims and Vulnerabilities Directorate is at the heart of the department’s policy agenda and leads some of the Government’s most complex and high-profile policies in the Criminal Justice System. This Deputy Director role leads two distinct areas: our policy towards vulnerable victims and witnesses; and the department’s work on the Criminal Law.

This Deputy Director role leads two significant areas of work – our leadership of the Criminal Law, and our policy work on vulnerable victims and witnesses. This role mixes policy, legislation and delivery, and has frequent contact with ministers and senior stakeholders. 

Key to this role is strong political judgement, the ability to maintain excellent stakeholder relationships including with other criminal justice agencies and across Whitehall, and excellent leadership skills. This role manages a team of around 30 staff, and is also expected to play a key role in shaping the management and culture of the wider directorate.

This position can be based at any of the following Locations:

102 Petty France (MOJ) London, SW1H 9AJ

5 Wellington Place Leeds, LS1 4AP

This role will include the following responsibilities:

• Leading policy on the criminal law. This involves working across government to respond to proposals to amend, reform and establish new criminal law. This is high profile and often fast-paced, balancing technical detail with political judgements. Key current priorities include reforms to the law on the taking and sharing of intimate images.

• Leading policy on the special measures that are available to victims and witnesses to support them giving evidence in court. This includes oversight of the recent national roll out of video recorded evidence (Section 28) for vulnerable witnesses, which is a key strand of the cross-government Rape Review. Key current priorities here are evaluating usage of S28, and working with criminal justice agencies and the judiciary to ensure its operation is as effective as possible.

• Leading policy on mental capacity. The team is responsible for the policy and legal framework for decision making by, or on behalf of people who may not be able to make their own decisions. This includes policy governing the responsibilities of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and the Court of Protection. Key deliverables include implementing the Lasting Power of Attorney Act which recently gained Royal Assent.

• Leading reforms to the statutory criminal compensation scheme, which provides circa £140m per year in financial compensation to victims of violent crime.

• The role also includes responsibility for managing the Witness Intermediary Scheme which matches intermediaries (speech and language specialists) with vulnerable witnesses to assist them in giving evidence to the police and in court.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

Additional Information 1 

Information Session

For those interested in finding out more about the role, we encourage applicants to attend the information session on 16.30 on Monday 6th November.

Amy Randall and Senior Leads will be present to discuss the position in more depth, as well as provide information about what you can expect while working in MoJ and the Policy group. The session will also give you the chance to ask any questions you may have before applying to the role.

To register your interest in attending the information session, please email: nicola.medhurst@justice.gov.uk.

Please view our candidate information pack for full details about the role, key responsibilities person specification, and the criteria you will be assessed against throughout the recruitment process. If you are interested in this exciting opportunity, and feel that you meet the criteria, we would welcome your application.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances 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

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above.
This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions.
Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and
conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your
personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any
absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you
to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Job contact :

• Name : SCS Recruitment Team
• Email : scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : scsrecruitment@justice.gov.uk