Legal Editor

at  Department for Work and Pensions

JOB SUMMARY

DMA Leeds is a team of experts that provides specialised services to help manage DWP’s legal risks, ensuring that Social Security Benefits and Child Maintenance are administered in compliance with the legislation, whilst effectively reflecting their intended policies. It sits within Policy Group and manages all DWP appeals to Upper Tribunal and the higher courts, publishes legal guidance for decision makers in the Decision Makers Guide (DMG), Child Maintenance Decision Makers Guide (CMDMG) and Advice for Decision Making (ADM) and runs a complex case guidance service for decision makers.
The team works closely with policy colleagues, lawyers, operational delivery staff and the tribunal services to help achieve accuracy, fairness and consistency in decision making.
Supporting welfare delivery is another significant area of the unit’s work. In advance of drafting legal guidance, this involves scrutinising ministerial submissions, instructions to lawyers and draft regulations to ensure that they are accurate, correctly reflect case law and reflect policy intent.
It is also responsible for working closely with National Archive to maintain an accurate record of DWP social security legislation on legislation.gov.uk.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Working as part of a team of Legal Editors, this role involves undertaking legal editorial work to bring legislation on www.legislation.gov.uk fully up to date and to maintain this service on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions. You will work closely with the National Archives Legislation Services Team to support the effective management of legislative updates, identifying the impact of new legislation on existing legislation and ensuring those amendments are published on the existing database.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

The successful candidate should be someone who has:

• Experience of legal editorial work and using mark-up languages (X-MetaL, SGML or HTML), databases or content management systems.
• Good written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to interpret complex information and make decisions effectively, seeking advice as required.
• Experience of working to tight deadlines and the ability to work well under pressure with little supervision, prioritising appropriately.
• Excellent IT skills, especially in Microsoft Word, Excel and SharePoint.
• Knowledge of the welfare system and benefit legislation.
• The ability to work effectively and flexibly as part of a team.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

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)
• 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)

Policy