23071 - Information Assurance and Security Officer - Legal Aid Agency

### Salary
The national salary range is £35,335 - £37,847, London salary range is £40,014 - £42,859. Your salary will be dependent on your base location

### Region
East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West, South East, South West, Wales, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber

Job description

Job Title & Grade: Information Assurance and Security Officer - HEO

Contract Type: Permanent

Salary range (depending on location): National - £35,335 to £37,847 London - £40,014 to £42,859

Please note that unless you are currently employed by the Civil Service and are earning more than the minimum above, if successful you will be offered the minimum for the grade depending on your location.

Location: Any LAA office

Please note that whilst this role is advertised externally, you can only apply for London, Cambridge and Brighton offices if you are a current LAA staff member based in those offices. This is due to and in line with the LAA's Location Strategy and the Cabinet Office's Places for Growth Strategy.

Minimum Working Pattern:

This role can be offered on a full-time or part-time basis. If you are applying for a part-time role, please note that to meet business demands we need cover for a minimum of 28 hours.

To meet legal requirements, if you are between the ages 16-18 and you are a successful candidate, you will be required to complete an apprenticeship after your initial on the job training.

The Legal Aid Agency

We are an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). We are responsible for operationally administering the legal aid fund to provide criminal and civil legal aid advice to people in England and Wales.

Our people are at the heart of achieving excellence. Employing around 1,200 colleagues across England and Wales, we feel proud to have some of the best People Survey results in the Civil Service.

Corporate Services & Assurance

The Corporate Services directorate works across the LAA to help shape and enable the priorities of the Chief Executive and Executive Leadership Team, providing support on areas such as strategy, data analysis, risk, assurance, counter-fraud, communications, people and capability to all other parts of the LAA.

Corporate Assurance, Risk and Secretariat Team

The CARS team combines the 5 functions of Health & Safety, Information Assurance & Security, Business Continuity, Risk and Secretariat to collectively strengthen and support the LAA’s governance, our assurance strategies, risk management processes and provide support to the LAA’s senior governance forums including the Board and Executive Leadership Team.

This role sits within Information Assurance & Security, a function that ensures the LAA appropriately protects and manages a significant volume of often very sensitive data relating to legal aid clients, our staff, legal aid providers and other third parties. Our work ensures the LAA meets its obligations under Data Protection legislation and UK Government security standards.

Job Summary

You will play a leading role in ensuring the LAA continues to manage its information assets in a secure and compliant manner, delivering improvements and ensuring ongoing compliance with legal and UK Government requirements relating to security and data protection. You will work with MoJ colleagues providing guidance and support to teams across the LAA and on cross-government projects to ensure that information assets are protected and used appropriately and ensure that LAA senior leaders have the necessary assurance. You will work on developing and maintaining a strong security culture within the LAA, working with staff at all grades and across the organisation to ensure a security conscious agency, as well as playing a key role in responding to security incidents.

Key Responsibilities:

- Provision of expert advice and support to stakeholders across the LAA on the application of Data Protection Legislation in their business area.
- Responding to often complex queries accurately in a timely manner.
- Provision of advice and support on data protection governance including Data Protection Impact Assessments, the LAA Information Asset Register and Data Sharing Agreements.
- Investigation of security incidents, maintaining LAA incident records and producing reports and trend analysis relating to LAA incidents.
- Working with business areas and stakeholders at all levels to drive process improvements with a view to improving compliance and/or preventing incidents.
- Responding to Data Subject Right’s requests, Data Protection Complaints and other similar queries and correspondence from external parties.
- Support the work of LAA vetting contacts to ensure relevant staff are vetted to appropriate standards.
- Building and maintaining excellent relationships with key stakeholders across the LAA, wider MoJ and other government departments.
- Attend cross-MoJ security working groups and other relevant networks.
- Lead and maintain the LAA Information Assurance Champions network, chairing regular meetings, disseminating resources and guidance with a focus on driving down risk across the LAA.
- Support the LAA’s wider security awareness culture by reviewing new guidance from technical authorities, regulatory bodies and government bodies.
- Review, publish and update LAA guidance and intranet resources to inform staff of their security responsibilities.
- Develop and deliver training for a range of stakeholders and help facilitate and deliver bespoke training on a range of data protection and security topics.
- Contribute to LAA’s physical security assurance programme by conducting site audits and inspections and identifying improvements to physical security and site safety.
- Other work as required to contribute to the LAA’s security culture and reduce security and data protection risks.
- This role may include line management of up to two EO staff.
- Travel to LAA sites across England and Wales as required, including occasional overnight stays.

Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills

- Experience of working in either a data protection or information security role.
- Experience of applying data protection legislation and ICO guidance to organisational processes and scenarios.
- Experience of or ability to support incident management, including identifying, triaging and responding to an incident, and briefing managers or senior leaders about incidents, their impact and lessons learned.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and skills

- Recognised qualification in Data Protection or Information Security.

Person Specification

- You’ll be confident in taking technical information and translating that into plain English for Senior Stakeholders.
- You’ll have a desire to make positive change – Information Assurance isn’t about saying no, it’s about enabling developments in a way that responsibly manages associated risks.
- You’ll work well with people and be able to maintain positive relationships whilst ensuring legislative obligations are met.
- You’ll enjoy working in both a pro-active and re-active way, to be able to reprioritise effectively, especially during incident management.

Assessment approach

Application Process

To apply please submit a CV and Statement of Suitability showing how you meet the essential criteria in no more than 750 words.

Your statement should demonstrate your experience and your ability to do all of the three bullet points in the Essential Knowledge, Experience and skills listed above . Using examples can help strengthen your application.

Please note that we only require a CV and a Statement of Suitability for your application. The wording on this advert may suggest that an Experience question is also required, however this is not necessary.

Interview / assessment Process

If you are successful through the application stage, you will be invited to an interview / assessment centre in person or via Microsoft Teams where you will be assessed against the following:

Strengths relevant to the role

The following Behaviours:

- Delivering at Pace
- Making Effective Decisions
- Working Together

An exercise assessing your ability to respond to a security incident. To complete the exercise, you will need access to a computer, email account and software that can open Microsoft word documents. You will be required to share your screen and be on camera when completing the exercise. Further details of this will be shared at the interview.

Your Experience of implementing, promoting, or understanding diversity and inclusion policy - Diversity is the presence of difference, this can include one or more of the protected characteristics (Gender, Age, Race, Disability etc.) or it can be about working patterns, whether we like to jump into a task or reflect on it before acting. Inclusion is how we welcome, value, and celebrate diversity, giving everyone a voice, tapping into ideas, and enabling everyone to be themselves at work and achieve their potential.

For this grade/ role we would expect the candidate to demonstrate understanding of the terms Diversity and Inclusion and be able to explain why they are important to them, their team and to where they work. We would also expect examples of action they have taken (in or outside of work) to embrace diversity (e.g., increasing understanding) or improve inclusion at a team or group level.

Please note, if you progress to interview, you may be asked to provide evidence of the qualifications you’ve stated on your application.

Shortlisting is planned for week commencing 26 th October 2026

Interviews are planned for week commencing 16 th November 2026

If you would like more information on this opportunity, please contact:
Adrian McArthur-Johnston - [email protected]

Our LAA commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

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 .

As a Disability Confident organisation, we will offer a guaranteed interview to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for this role. Under the Equality Act 2010 a disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities which has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

If you are responding to a role within the Legal Aid Agency and would like to be considered under the guaranteed interview, please indicate this in your application and let us know of any reasonable adjustments you may require during the sift or later selection processes.

The LAA’s goal is to build an organisation that is open and inclusive and truly values and celebrates the diversity of its workforce. One that reflects and understands the needs of the diverse society we serve. This is regardless of social background, gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, beliefs, disabilities or long-term illness or caring responsibilities.

Reasonable Adjustments

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process, please let us know by adding the information to the applications system or emailing [email protected] after you have applied so that we can discuss options with you.

Complaints procedure

If you have any complaints about this recruitment activity, please share your concerns by emailing [email protected] initially. We aim to respond to any complaint within 10 working days.

If you are dissatisfied with our response, we will forward your complaint to the Civil Service Commission, an independent body, for review.

Additional Information

Working Arrangements & Further Information

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 role: 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.

Flexible working hours

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.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

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.

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.

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.

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 moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on www.GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/tax-free-childcare) or Childcare Choices (https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/) . You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ .
- Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
- Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

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 . Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

- To Transformative Business Services (0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) );
- To Ministry of Justice Resourcing team ( [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) );
- To the Civil Service Commission (details available here (https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/recruitment-complaints/) )

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.

For more information on applying for a role as a candidate with a disability or long-term condition, please watch our animated videos .

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.

Diversity & Inclusion

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 .

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 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.

Civil Service Nationality Rules

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 (https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fsettled-status-eu-citizens-families&data=05%7C01%7Cchristopher.jeffery%40soprasteria.com%7C8a2293860362402c15da08dbf4cff146%7C8b87af7d86474dc78df45f69a2011bb5%7C0%7C0%7C638372946312587803%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=s%2BxUsev%2BGeeK%2FLgTUjpjfTJu%2FjpKQZ%2BQPJXNduvik3Q%3D&reserved=0)
- 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

Reserve list

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

MoJ:

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5359 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected]

Please quote the job reference: 23071

HMPPS

If you require any assistance please call 0345 241 5358 (Monday to Friday 8am - 6pm) or e mail [email protected]

Please quote the job reference: 23071

Your Experience for this role will be assessed at interview. To learn more about Experience and how they are assessed please click here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-experience).
Strengths will be assessed but these are not shared in advance. To learn more about Strengths and how they are assessed please click here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles/success-profiles-strengths).

Use of Artificial Intelligence (Al)

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.