23537 - Head of Tribunals and Court Fees Modelling

Head of Tribunals and Court Fees Modelling

1. Overview

We have 1 role in the analysis team which supports policy teams working in the Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate.

This role is open to:

Existing badged analysts from all professions (GORS/GSS/GSR/GES) either on level transfer or on promotion.

You will be asked to supply evidence of your GES, GSR, GORS or GSS membership at application stage, this can consist of confirmation of passing the GES, GSR, GORS or GSS badging board or an email from your current line manager confirming your GES, GSR, GORS or GSS badged status. Applicants who do not provide this will be rejected.

Please note: this opportunity is only open to individuals currently employed within the Civil Service.

Minimum requirements to apply:

Candidates must be able to show the relevant experience and skills and must meet the criteria for entry:

Grade 7 – must meet all of the following:

• You have significant work experience evidencing use of data and/or analytical skills. Time spent on an analytical PhD can count towards this.
• You have significant experience of managing projects
• You have experience of leading or managing a team or the clear capacity to do so.

We welcome applications from candidates based across the UK. Candidates will have the option of being based in the Leeds or London HQ offices (with flexible working arrangements available) or your nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office: see this map for more details.

Alternative locations may be available and will be discussed and agreed on the completion of background checks.

Interviews are likely to take place in October or early November 2026 and will be held via MS Teams. We will keep a merit list for a year for those who successfully pass the interview board but who are not offered a post.

1. About the Civil, Family and Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate

The Civil, Family, Tribunals and Administration of Justice Directorate sits at the heart of the Department’s policy agenda. It is responsible for the family and civil justice and tribunals systems in England and Wales as well as irregular migration. We are areas of high policy interest and work closely with ministers and across government to make sure that the government continues to deliver vital public services.

Analytical support to the directorate is provided by the Access to Justice (A2J) Analysis Team which also includes analysts working on legal aid, legal support, legal services, judicial issues, victims and criminal court reform. Within this wider team Civil, Administrative and Family Justice and Fees Policy Analysis is a multidisciplinary group of analysts who lead the Department's analysis across the civil, administrative and family justice systems, including the fees which are charged to users in each jurisdiction. It is a varied, fast-paced and rewarding area to work in, with much of our work supporting Departmental and Ministerial priorities.

Our work area is wide and spans court and tribunals fees policy, administrative justice (e.g., tribunal demand analysis, judicial review reform), civil justice (e.g., clinical negligence and personal injury claims) and public and private family justice issues (e.g., proceedings concerning children in care and those relating to child custody post-divorce) and the wider performance and reform of the family justice system. We also support work on Coroners Courts and inquests.

To do all of the above, we work with colleagues from policy, analysis, data, finance, HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), Cafcass Cymru and Cafcass England and other government departments including the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Education (DfE).

What we offer

The directorate is friendly, inclusive and supportive and has adopted flexible working practices designed to ensure personal wellbeing and a genuine work/life balance.

• Flexible working arrangements and a focus on equality of opportunity – including welcoming part-time and/or job-share arrangements, compressed hours, working from home or your nearest Justice Collaboration Centres or Justice Satellite Office.
• Career development – regular development and promotion opportunities across a wide range of roles, career development support, with a generous individual learning and development budget.
• Range of new areas of work and new tools and techniques – we pride ourselves on our excellent deployment of well-established analytical methods, but also our progress to date. Progress such as our ambitious and innovative transformation programme to leverage departmental data and drive evidence-based decision-making using cutting-edge tools and techniques (for example: experimentation, personalisation, artificial intelligence).
• Analysis is at the centre of the Department’s decision making – our transformation programme is focused on maximising our impact on departmental outcomes. The Ministry of Justice’s Senior Team and our Ministerial Team want all decisions to be evidence driven – your analysis will be key in influencing decisions and real-world impact.
• Vibrant community – part of a multidisciplinary team that has a supportive culture and is looking to further develop the community with the help of everyone.
• See the frontline and what your work is influencing – regular opportunities to visit our front-line service providers, including courts, prisons, and probation to better understand the areas your analysis is affecting.

2. What you’ll do

As Head of Tribunals and Court Fees Modelling your role will be to strengthen the modelling and more technical elements of the MoJ analytical work which supports both MoJ fees policy and tribunals policy. We do not want to be prescriptive concerning the relative amount of time the postholder will devote to each of these two areas as it will be sensitive to ministerial interest and MoJ policy priorities.

Both areas will involve building, quality assuring, running and maintaining/developing complex models (mainly written in Excel) including the relevant data inputs. It will also involve reporting the outputs, in various formats, to ministers, senior officials, policy, operational and finance colleagues. As a result, the role requires a combination of strong technical, data and modelling skills and the ability to communicate the results of complex analysis to various non-technical stakeholders.

The post holder will be expected to manage one SEO member of staff working on tribunals issues and to share line-responsibility for SEO/HEO staff working on court fee issues with another G7 analyst who will focus on more policy-related issues.

Tribunals Analysis

The tribunal system provides judicial forums for resolving disputes between individuals and businesses (e.g., landlord/tenant, employer/employee) and between individuals and public bodies (e.g., government departments and local authorities) that are more accessible and informal than the ordinary courts. There are specialist tribunals in areas such as employment, social security/child support, mental health, immigration and asylum, tax, property, special educational needs and property.

The tribunals differ in terms of their caseloads, rules and procedures and, in addition to judges, some include non-legal specialists. This means estimating caseloads and the judicial requirements of each tribunal is a complex issue. Many tribunal cases arise due to the decisions made by other government departments or local authorities (e.g., special educational needs) while recent reforms, such as the Employment Rights and Renter’s Rights Acts, will have major impacts on demand.

At present, there are significant and lengthening backlogs in many of the tribunals. As a result, and in addition the forecasting and modelling of the activities in the main tribunals, you will be expected to incorporate evidence based on recent legislative changes into existing tribunal models and to support policy colleagues working on options to reduce demand (e.g., should certain case types be heard by judges? how might better decision making early prevent cases from reaching the tribunal stage?).

In the longer term, as work on tribunals is currently divided between analysts based in MoJ and HMCTS, you can expect to lead in developing a more strategic approach to this work area given the rising importance of this work to the wider justice system.

Court Fees Analysis

In 2024-25, HMCTS had net expenditure of around £1.9 billion. Of this, around £1bn was met by fees charged to the users of the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions. The civil and family courts are the main jurisdictions where fees are charged, and include those for money claims (e.g., non-payment of debts), divorce proceedings, probate applications and family cases. Court fees are not charged in criminal cases.

Fees need to be uprated to reflect changes in HMCTS costs due to inflation and changing patterns of user demand. In addition, while most of the fees charged aim to recover the cost of the services provided to court users, in some cases fees may be set at a level above cost and so provide additional income for the MoJ to fund other services. As a consequence, court fees modelling plays a significant role in terms of the funding of the courts and tribunal system and of the justice system more widely.

In the short-term you should expect to work on: completing current work on improving the current Fees Cost Model; supporting the next annual fees inflation uplift and supporting finance colleagues with the development of options for changes to fee levels. Over the longer-term, you will be expected to lead on: maintaining and developing the various fees models, including the fees model mentioned along with those relating to ‘remissions’ – fee reductions for court users on low incomes.

3. Who you are

The following experience and skills will be required:

• A credible analyst who can work across professional boundaries to prioritise analytical effort and focus delivery on high-impact analysis that directly enables operational and/or strategic decision-making and support policy development.
• A collaborative individual who can work across organisational boundaries to build effective relationships with policy, operational and legal colleagues to deliver shared objectives.
• An excellent communicator who can translate complex technical challenges and opportunities in a transparent and compelling way, building support and momentum.
  
  
• Strong technical skills including at least some of the following:
• Advanced Excel, Power Query and data-modelling skills, including controlled refresh processes.
• Strong analytical capability, including costing, scenario modelling and interpretation of financial and operational data.
• Experience of model QA, reconciliation, audit trails, version control and technical documentation.
• Experience using dashboard or reporting tools, such as Power BI or equivalent.

The following experience and skills are desirable:

• R programming skills to interpret existing models, support validation and translate analysis into Excel-based processes.
• Experience of using a range of quantitative and qualitative evidence to address complex policy questions where evidence is uncertain or incomplete.
• The flexibility to shift between policy areas, sometimes at short notice.
• Line management of SEO or HEO level analytical staff.

4. How to apply

You’ll need to submit an anonymised work history and Statement of Suitability as part of your application. You will not be considered if you do not provide both.

Your work history should meet the following criteria: well structured, succinct, and written in clear language.

Your Statement of Suitability should be no more than 750 words and should give us examples of how your skills and experience match those needed for this role. Consider giving examples that cover all the requirements in the ‘Who you are’ section and use work you have completed to demonstrate how you meet each one.

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade.

Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours - GOV.UK

You will be asked to supply evidence of your GES, GSR, GORS or GSS membership at application stage, this can consist of confirmation of passing the GES, GSR, GORS or GSS badging board or an email from your current line manager confirming your GES, GSR, GORS or GSS badged status. Applicants who do not provide this will be rejected.

5a. Selection Process

There will be an initial sift of applicants through comparing submitted evidence against the ‘Who you are’ bullets. This usually takes two weeks, depending on the number of applications.

Those who make it through the initial sift will be invited to a Civil Service Success Profile interview. In the Civil Service we use Success Profiles to help us find the right person for the job. We will be using a mixture of methods to assess your abilities, strengths, experience, technical skills, and behaviours. We highly recommend learning about Success Profiles and using the Situation, Task, Action, Result and Reflection (STARR) framework when structuring your answers.

The highest scoring candidate that passes the interview will be offered the role. The whole process can take up to a month.

5b. Interview Process

Behaviours

You will be assessed against the Civil service success profiles framework at interview stage:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions

Please also refer to the CS Behaviours framework for more details at this grade.

For existing analysts from all professions, as well as the three civil service behaviours stated above, you will be assessed on two sets of professional competencies at interview.

Professional Competencies

Professional Competency (1) Knowledge & Skills

• GSS - Data Analysis.
• GORS - Knowledge and application of OR Skills and Techniques.
• GES - Analysis of Data.
• GSR - Knowledge and application of GSR technical skills

• GSS - Presenting and disseminating data effectively.
• GORS - Achieving impact with analysis.
• GES - Effective communication.
• GSR - using and promoting social research

For more information regarding Professional Competency (2) please refer to the analytical profession internet links below. Please note that some aspect of the professional competency may overlap with the MoJ competencies listed above. We therefore recommend that in providing evidence for the professional competency, candidates focus on the technical and methodology aspects of the competencies that are specific to the profession. We will use evidence presented for the MoJ competencies in assessing the wider skills candidates have.

Government Statistician Group (GSG): Further information, including a user guide, can be found within the link below:

GSG-competency-framework-2021-reviewed-february-2023

Government Social Research Service (GSR): Further information can be found within the link below:

GSR Competency Framework 2022

Government Operational Research Service (GORS): Further information can be found within the link below:

GORS Competencies

Government Economic Service (GES): Further information can be found within the link below:

GES Professional Standards 2022

6. Applicants invited for Interview

You will be required to give a 5-minute presentation at interview. Details of this will be sent to those candidates who are invited for interview.

7. Further Information

If you require any additional information about the role, please contact:

Andrew Meads [email protected]