Vacancy -- Legislative Codes Officer

'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.

The purpose of this role is to support delivery of the Government’s programme to improve the accessibility of Welsh law.

The key objectives of this role are to manage the operation and delivery of the Cyfraith Cymru/Law Wales website, including researching, commissioning and organising new content, and managing the ongoing relevance of existing content.

Part of the role includes the management of a small team who help to maintain and update the legislation.gov.uk website and the Welsh Government’s online encyclopaedia of Welsh laws, and register subordinate legislation (including statutory instruments). 

The role will also encompass policy development as part of the wider programme of improving accessibility of Welsh law, and be responsible for the establishment and provision of bilingual secretariat duties for the Cyfraith Cymru Editorial Board.

Cyfraith Cymru/Law Wales website

Lead on researching, commissioning and organising new content for the website. This will include the management of the website, and the post holder will:

• reviewing existing bilingual content to identifying where updates or new material are required, commissioning new and changed content and then updating the website;
• implementing agreed improvements to the website which take account of user research and other development activity;
• providing bilingual secretariat duties to the website’s Editorial Board (once established). An early duty of the role will include working with the Head of the Legislative Code Office to establish the Board.

legislation.gov.uk website, including ‘CymruLex’

Oversee the work to deliver a programme of updating and organising Welsh Acts and Statutory Instruments on the legislation.gov.uk website. This will include:

• initially identifying (in collaboration with Senior Editors in The National Archives) which legislation is required to be updated retrospectively, and devising a staged approach to ensuring all necessary revisions and annotations are made to legislation made by the National Assembly for Wales and Welsh Ministers since 1999;
• subsequently rolling out the agreed approach to revision and annotation for existing legislation, and implementing the ongoing programme of updating in light of new legislative changes.

This work will require close adherence to the editorial processes and conventions of TNA and will involve overseeing the work of the Legislative Annotators & Coordinators to ensure all Welsh legislative revisions are correctly updated and annotated (including the retrospective revision and annotation of all Welsh legislation made since 1999).

Working with the Head of the Code Office and the other Legislative Codes Officer in the team, this post will also be involved in the development of the new ‘CymruLex’ product which will be hosted on the legislation.gov.uk website. Specifically this post will work on identifying impacts and relationships between revisions and annotations and the tagging of legislation for inclusion in the CymruLex product.

The post-holder will also administer central expenditure on Statutory Instrument production costs and on translation costs (through purchase orders and checking/certifying incoming invoices).

This post provides the opportunity to develop specialist editorial skills and experience of using a range of publishing software.

The post-holder will receive intensive training from the editing team within The National Archives, and will be able to access ongoing support and advice from TNA.

The post-holder will be part of the team delivering the Counsel General’s priority to improve the accessibility of Welsh law, and will be working with colleagues across the Government to achieve this. The post will also have the opportunity of liaising with colleagues in the Assembly Commission the UK Government, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive, as well key members of the ‘legal Wales community’.

02/11/2020, 16:00

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:

• UK Visas and Immigration - GOV.UK

• Nationality rules – GOV.UK

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

• 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.

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)

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.