Deputy Director x 2

Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester

About the Government Legal Department

From energy to security, health to human rights, we help the Government deliver life changing law for citizens.
The Government Legal Department is the largest provider of legal services across government, working on high profile matters that are frequently scrutinised in Parliament and the media. Our work includes:

•    Developing and drafting legislation
•    Providing legal advice on policies 
•    Securing our economic and trade relationships
•    Ensuring value from commercial contracts worth billions of pounds
•    Providing the Civil Service’s employment law advice

We are at the heart of delivering the Government’s priorities and our success depends on our people. 

GLD is a non-ministerial government department, sponsored by the Attorney General. We are headed by the Treasury Solicitor, our Permanent Secretary, and employ nearly 3000 people, including over 2000 legal professionals. Our offices include London, Leeds, Bristol, Croydon and Manchester as well as overseas. We provide specialist legal services including Litigation, Employment and Commercial Law as well as advising most Government Departments on the policies and services they deliver.

GLD also depends on a range of vital corporate services. These are essential to the smooth and efficient running of the Department and provide the foundation to enable GLD to deliver outstanding legal services. Our corporate functions include Strategy, HR, Finance, Digital, Data and Technology, Communications, Security, Commercial and Project delivery.  

Our vision is to be an outstanding legal organisation and a brilliant place to work where everyone can thrive and fulfil their potential. This is an exciting time for GLD, with cutting edge legal work on global issues and a transformation agenda which is ensuring the Department exemplifies the Modern Civil Service.   

To find out more about what we do visit the Government Legal Department’s webpage or have a look at this short film which showcases the breadth of work government lawyers and legal trainees are involved in.

About TLA
 
Treasury Legal Advisers (TLA) is the in-house legal department of HM Treasury (HMT).  HMT is the UK’s finance and economics ministry.  TLA is a division of GLD but works collaboratively with colleagues across HM Treasury to provide legal advice to ministers and officials across all of HMT’s functions.  

Key legal areas on which TLA advises include:
•    the regulation of financial services
•    financial stability
•    public spending
•    public sector pensions. 
•    market interventions and state-owned assets
•    trade negotiations 
•    sanctions, money laundering and illicit finance

TLA consist of about 100 lawyers and other professionals, operating through six legal teams each led by a Deputy Director. We work in a friendly, open, and collaborative culture: most of our work is handled by small groups of lawyers rather than by a single lawyer and so we place a high value on teamwork.  We often work collaboratively with lawyers from other government departments and with the legal teams from the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority.  Some of our work involves instructing and working with external law firms and Counsel. The division is currently based in HMT’s headquarters building at One Horse Guards Road, London and in GLD’s regional offices in Bristol, Leeds and Manchester.

The Role

Each of the roles offers an excellent opportunity to work at the heart of Government and support the work of the Treasury.

In particular, the roles involve:
•    providing advice (both personally and through others) to Ministers and senior officials on the legality of proposed Government actions;
•    working closely and collaboratively with policy officials, regulators and other legal teams within TLA and across GLD;
•    responding at pace to issues which are or may become high profile in the media or are of political significance;
•    advising on a wide variety of matters including general public law issues, changes to legislation (both primary and secondary), commercial considerations (including subsidy control) and litigation risk;  
•    leading a high-performing team of lawyers, including subject matter experts;
•    leading TLA through full participation in TLA’s Senior Leadership Team and taking on division-wide roles in the management of TLA;
•    contributing to the leadership of GLD and acting as a role model for GLD values and the culture of TLA.

There are two roles available.  Applicants can apply for one post only, or for both.

Public and Finance General Team (PFG)

The Team
Public Finance and General (PFG) team advises on all areas of Treasury policy and operations that don’t fall within the specific remits of the other TLA teams. Principally, this means advice on matters of public spending, revenue-raising, borrowing (both retail and wholesale) and accountability for public money. Specific areas of practice include market interventions and subsidy control issues, state-owned assets, public service pensions, currency and monetary policy, information law, public appointments, and procurement.   The team works with a large number of policy teams across the Treasury on policy proposals which are often very fast moving and high profile.

The team advises on public finance issues intersecting with the remits of all other Government departments, and this involves the analysis of statutory and other powers for revenue-raising and spending and how these interact with principles of public financial accountability set out in the Treasury’s guide to Managing Public Money. As a result, the team often interacts with other legal teams from across central government.

The team is arranged into a number of G6-led mini-teams, which cover four separate work strands:
•    Public service pensions,
•    Subsidy control matters,
•    Spending and taxation matters,
•    Other matters (including support to HMT on the Covid Inquiry).
The team is currently made up of 13 lawyers.  Many of these lawyers are expert in the areas of work which they cover. The Deputy Director is not expected to have the same level of expertise as expert lawyers in all of the matters the team advises on, but should be able to supervise the work of such lawyers appropriately, to develop further expertise over time.

The Work
The team supports each of the regular fiscal events (budget, autumn statement etc) by providing legal advice where proposals for changes to public spending give rise to legal issues. Practice in respect of market interventions and subsidy control has included the recent pandemic-related measures, legacy assets from the 2008-9 financial crisis, the recent mortgage guarantee scheme, interventions in the energy sector and novel fund-raisings such as the recent issuance of the UK’s first Green Gilt. The team has also recently led the legal work (including supporting the enactment of primary legislation) on setting up the new UK Infrastructure Bank.  It also supports HMT’s Information Unit on Freedom of Information Act requests and subject access requests.  The team also advises the Cabinet Office on public sector pensions and coordinates advice on public sector pensions across central government.   Beyond that, there is an element of unpredictability to the team’s work as it deals with a wide variety of legal issues which arise in the course of HMT’s work which do not fall within the specific remits of other teams.
 
Funds, Markets and Securities Team (FMS) 

The Team
Funds, Markets and Securities (FMS) team is one of three financial services regulation teams that advise Treasury.  The financial services sector is a key part of the UK economy and FMS plays a crucial role in delivery of advice in this space.  Over the past few years the focus of the FMS team has been on assisting policy colleagues to develop their polices post Brexit to translate into primary legislation culminating in the Financial Services Act 2021 and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023.  The government is undertaking a radical overhaul of the financial regulatory framework using the Smarter Regulatory Framework (SRF) and a priority for the team will be implementing the SRF through secondary legislation, which will be a significant programme of work in the coming years.
 
The work of the team is diverse and high profile advising on areas which are at the forefront of emerging technologies, markets, and innovations. It includes advising on the wholesale markets review – ensuring the UK’s regulatory regime for secondary markets is fair, outcomes-based and supports competitiveness; financial markets infrastructure – enabling Treasury to set up one or more Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) sandboxes, which will enable participating firms to test and adopt new technologies and practices; and creating a new framework for the regulation of securitisation and a new Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regime.
 
FMS is arranged into a number of G6-led mini-teams, made up of 14 lawyers and covers five separate work strands:
·    Markets 
·    Central Counterparties, Over-the-counter Derivatives and Trade Repositories regulation, the Senior Managers and Certification Regime & Short Selling
·    Securities, Financial Promotion & Funds
·    Libor, Benchmarks and Market Abuse
·    Gibraltar

Many of the lawyers in the team are expert in the areas of work which they cover. The Deputy Director is not expected to have the same level of expertise as expert lawyers in all of the matters the team advises on, but should be able to supervise the work of such lawyers appropriately, to develop further expertise over time.

The Work
Recent work has included the delivery of two Financials Services Acts, The Critical Benchmarks (References and Administrators’ Liability) Act 2021 which supported the orderly wind-down of critical benchmarks, the drafting and delivery of a number of pieces of secondary legislation and a number of products which were recently published at part of the Mansion House package including the draft SIs on Public Offers and Admissions to Trading Regulations 2023 and the Securitisation Regulation 2023.

The three Financial Services team in TLA work together closely.  The teams also work closely with other government departments, the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority.  

Civil Service Code
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of you and other civil servants. These are based on the core values which are set out in legislation. As a civil servant, you are expected to carry out your role with dedication and a commitment to the Civil Service and its core values of: 
–    ‘integrity’ is putting the obligations of public service above your own personal interests
–    ‘honesty’ is being truthful and open
–    objectivity’ is basing your advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence
–    ‘impartiality’ is acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving equally well governments of different political persuasions
These core values support good government and ensures the achievement of the highest possible standards in all that the Civil Service does.

Behaviours

Leadership (assessed at sift and interview)
o    Remain visible and approachable to all colleagues and stakeholders.
o    Display passion and enthusiasm for our work, helping to inspire colleagues and stakeholders to fully engage with the aims and long-term vision.
o    Embed a culture of inclusion and equal opportunity for all, where the diversity of individuals’ backgrounds and experiences are valued and respected.
o    Work to influence the strategy, direction and culture to increase effectiveness.

Managing a Quality Service (assessed at sift and interview)
o    Use customer insight to drive high quality and efficient service delivery which is a good investment of taxpayers money.
o    Identify areas for improvement and make appropriate changes to reach professional excellence.

Working Together (assessed at sift and interview)
o    Proactively create, maintain and promote a strong network of contacts across the organisation and externally.
o    Embed an inclusive culture of creating positive and supportive teams who consider the diverse needs and feelings of other colleagues.
o    Set out clear expectations that bullying, harassment, and discrimination are unacceptable.

Communicating and Influencing (assessed at interview)
o    Communicate in a straightforward, honest and truthful way with consideration for the impact of the method used. 
o    Communicate with conviction and clarity in the face of tough negotiations or challenges. 
o    Respect and consider the diversity of the audience when giving messages and deliver these appropriately. 

Technical (assessed at sift and interview)
•    Good knowledge, understanding and experience of advising on public law matters and legislation
•    Bring wider legal experience and knowledge to bear.
•    Effectively manages legal risk. Provides sound legal direction to the team and takes responsibility for the professional work of the team.

Desirable Criteria (assessed at interview)
•    For the Public Finance and General role, prior experience of advising on the management of public funds (e.g. subsidy control, grants) or public sector pensions is desirable but not essential.  
•    For the Funds, Markets and Securities role, prior experience of advising on regulatory matters, ideally in relation to financial services, is desirable but not essential.  Experience in managing the delivery of secondary legislation is also desirable but not essential.  

Security Clearance Level
Minimum requirement is CTC.  It may be useful (although it is not essential) if the Deputy Director, Public Finance and General is willing to seek DV clearance after appointment. 

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

• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

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

• Please demonstrate how you show the below technical skills:

  • Good knowledge, understanding and experience of advising on public law matters and legislation
  • Bring wider legal experience and knowledge to bear.
  • Effectively manages legal risk. Provi

Alongside your salary of £73,000, Government Legal Department contributes
£19,710 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration
is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them
to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through
building your depth of expertise.

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.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available.
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Job contact :

• Name : Rebecca Lane
• Email : Rebecca.Lane@HMTreasury.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : MarthaSia.Mboya@governmentlegal.gov.uk