Vacancy -- Bilingual Legislative Text Editor

Working for the Civil Service

The Welsh Government's recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

Vacancy Details

Economy, Treasury and Constitution Group
Legal Services Department
HEO - £32,460 - £39,690
£32,460
Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)
Permanent
Pan Wales
'Pan Wales' means that the location in which the vacancy can be based is flexible, subject to the needs of the business. Please note it may not always be possible to accommodate a preference for a specific office location, but requests will be taken into consideration.
TBC

Purpose of Post:

Supporting the Senior Bilingual Legislative Text Editor to provide a linguistic equivalence checking service for the Legal Services Department in quality assuring the production of linguistically equivalent and accurate bilingual subordinate legislation.

The Legal Services Department (LS) of the Welsh Government is responsible for the bilingual drafting of all general subordinate legislation made by the Welsh Ministers, First Minister acting alone or where appropriate the Counsel General, as well as other bilingual legal documents.

All bilingual legal texts are rigorously checked and edited in order to ensure linguistic accuracy and legal equivalence between the two language versions.

The volume of bilingual subordinate legislation made by the Welsh Ministers requires a dedicated legislative text editing service, situated within the Welsh Government Legal Services Department, to facilitate the accurate and consistent application of Welsh Government drafting guidance and of the terminology used in draft bilingual legislation prepared by the relevant  subject lawyers. The postholder is required to specialise in the work of checking and editing the Welsh and English language texts of bilingual subordinate legislation in accordance with demand, working closely with the Senior Bilingual Legislative Text Editor, drafting lawyers and the Welsh Government’s specialist team of legislative translators.   

 

 If you would like any additional information about these posts, you can contact:

Key tasks:

Reporting directly to the Senior Bilingual Legislative Text Editor, the key tasks required of the post are:

  • Undertaking comparative scrutiny of Welsh and English legal texts in respect of final bilingual drafts of general Welsh Statutory Instruments, local and other subordinate legislation and a range of miscellaneous bilingual legislative documents;
  • Scrutinising additional lawyer amendments to legislative texts as required and advising on revisions within specified timeframes for making or laying in draft;
  • Liaising with the senior text editor, drafting lawyers and specialist legal translators where corrections may be needed and/or where alternative terminology may be required;
  • Observing such advice on drafting and terminology as may be communicated by the Legal Advisers to the Senedd’s Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee or reported to the Senedd;
  • Assisting drafting lawyers as required in the timely checking of all draft affirmative SIs that are amended following withdrawal by Welsh Ministers;
  • Maintaining and inputting information into a system for managing and recording the throughput of final draft bilingual documents for text editing ahead of formal submission by policy clients to Ministers;
  • Contributing such information as may be required to WSI Information databases maintained by the Legislative Codes office for the purposes of producing current and historical statistical reports in respect of legislation made by the Welsh Ministers.

Development opportunities:

Your experience will give you a unique understanding of how bilingual legislation in Wales is prepared and made and the processes involved.  This role offers the opportunity to work within a professional legal environment at the heart of devolved government, at the forefront of the policy and law-making process and at the cutting edge of major constitutional developments.

Closing Date:

27/03/2023, 16:00

Eligibility

Posts recruited to as part of this recruitment campaign are broadly open to UK nationals, those with right to remain and work in the UK and those that meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules only. Check your eligibility here:

Prior to appointment, all successful applicants will be required to produce original, acceptable documents as part of the pre-employment checks. If it becomes apparent at a later stage in the process that you aren’t eligible to apply, your application will be withdrawn, or offer retracted.

Equality and Diversity

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Disability Confident

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Welsh Language Requirements

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

Essential
Full understanding of all work related material
Fluent
Can understand all work-related conversations
Can prepare written material for all work-related matters

Social Partnership

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Competencies / Job Specific Criteria

Competencies

  • Making Effective Decisions - Identify a broad range of relevant and credible information sources and recognise the need to collect new data when necessary from internal and external sources
  • Collaborating and Partnering - Establish relationships with a range of stakeholders to support delivery of business outcomes.
  • Seeing the big Picture - Be alert to emerging issues and trends which might impact or benefit own and team’s work.
  • Changing and Improving - Actively encourage ideas from a wide range of sources and stakeholders and use these to inform own thinking.

Job Specific Criteria

  1. Candidates must be thoroughly proficient in both Welsh and English, with linguistic skills in Welsh (understanding, reading, writing and speaking) at or equivalent to degree standard or other relevant qualification (eg a professional Welsh Translation qualification).
  2. Candidates must be able to evidence sufficient relevant experience of working bilingually in either a legal or other professional environment and the ability to provide advice to staff at all levels regarding linguistic and operational matters.
  3. Have good IT skills – much of the work involving the checking and edition of draft SIs will require user navigation of a bespoke electronic SI drafting template.  Training on the use of the template and on IT skills more generally will however be available.

Assessment Process

We welcome and encourage applications from those currently underrepresented in our workforce, such as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people.

Applications should be submitted in the Welsh language.

 

Application stage

  • A completed on-line application form
  • An up to date CV setting out your career history with key responsibilities and achievements, including the necessary professional qualifications. We recommend paying particular attention to the “purpose of the post” and “key tasks” to ensure your CV reflects the skills and experience we are looking for.
  • Personal statement to address the following
    • the four competency behaviours included above; and
    • the three job specific criteria.

We recommend aiming for around 200-300 words for each of the 7 categories

  • Completed Equality and Diversity monitoring information

We recommend reading the guidance at the attached links to assist you in applying for these posts. They explain how to evidence your suitability for the posts.

Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link).

Civil Service Competency Framework (link)

Applications will be sifted.  Only those applicants who meet the minimum requirement will be invited to the next stage.

 

Bilingual Text Editing and Providing Advice Test

Candidates successful at the sift stage will be invited to undertake a bilingual text editing test and a test in providing advice.  Arrangements, date and time for the test will be communicated at least 5 working days in advance to candidates successful at the sift stage.

Only those applicants who satisfy the minimum requirements of the test will be invited to the next stage.

 

Interview Stage

Candidates who satisfy the minimum requirements of the Bilingual Text Editing and Providing Advice Test will be invited to interview.

The job specific criteria and competencies will also be assessed at the interview stage.

In the event of candidates’ overall scores being tied, preference will be given to those candidates who have attained higher scores in relation to the job specific criteria.

Candidates will be given at least 5 working days’ notice of the date and time of interview.   

 

Feedback

Feedback for the sift stage will only be provided once the scheme has been completed.

Other Information

  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘actual starting salary’, all candidates will start at the minimum of the pay scale being appointed to (this includes existing civil servants).This is not negotiable.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘type of opportunity’, this recruitment advert is not open on a Loan or Secondment basis.
  • For more information on the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions for Loan and Secondment positions in Welsh Government, please see external recruitment candidate guidance.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘Location of Post’ the role/s recruited to via this campaign can only be worked in the UK, not overseas.
LegalRecruitment.WG.Legal@gov.wales

How to apply

All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have an impairment which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format, or to request a reasonable adjustment related to an impairment in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Welsh Government recruitment process, please see the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link).

When evidencing your suitability for the post, it is recommended that you refer to the Civil Service Competency Framework (link)

Grievance and Complaints

Anyone who believes they have been treated unfairly, or has a grievance or complaint, about how the process was conducted should either write to the Head of Resourcing, Welsh Government, Cathays Park 2, Cardiff CF10 3NQ or email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales.  If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint raised with the Welsh Government and feel that the principles of appointment on merit through fair and open competition have not been met you have the right to pursue your grievance with the Civil Service Commission.

This vacancy is closed to applications.