Senior Disclosure Specialist - Clearance & Appeals

Job Title: Senior Disclosure Specialist- Clearance & Appeals

As a Senior Disclosure Specialist in Clearance & Appeals you will be responsible for making sure that high profile and sensitive disclosure activity is lawful and well handled. The work covers information requests for the whole of the department including high-profile offenders, security matters, and the work of Ministers. You will need to work closely with External Communications (Press Office), Private Office and the Senior Civil Service, providing advice on the handling of complex cases.

Responsibilities, Activities and Duties

• Advise and case manage complex sensitive disclosure requests, assisting other members of the team in the same endeavour. You will produce accurate, timely and succinct advice on disclosure matters in short timeframes and to an excellent standard.
• Coordinate information rights litigation across ISD, working in collaboration with the Government Legal Directorate (GLD).
• Managing and developing the team’s relationships with Press Office, Private Office and Special Advisors in relation to requests and ensuring the processes are reviewed and fit for purpose.
• Oversight of internal reviews and ICO cases ensuring these are timely and of a high standard.
• Carry out analysis of performance to show trends and highlight areas for improvement, being measured and considered with solutions to combat any concerns.

Skills & Experience

• Leadership: Strong leadership skills to support the team through change. This role requires significant interaction with key stakeholders and therefore your ability to influence and persuade their strategic direction and gain agreement and/or collaboration should be of a high level.
• Communication: Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, providing guidance to colleagues and members of the public.
• Collaborative approach: Able to build strong relationships across boundaries, within team, across an organisation and with external stakeholders.
• Flexibility: Work flexibly across all parts of the team, undertaking tasks to meet short deadlines and respond to business needs. Ability to work to tight deadlines in a busy environment.
• Continuous Improvement: A strong commitment to delivering a high-quality service and regularly reviewing processes to identify opportunities to innovate and streamline approaches.
• Guidance, Training, and Development: Support the delivery of our expanding programme of guidance and training on FOI, EIR, and GDPR/DPA matters to staff across the department. Helping to ensure the department has the capability to meet legislative obligations.
• Working knowledge of Freedom of Information Act 2000, Environmental Information Regulations 2004, Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations.
• The role cuts across all aspects of the department and is an opportunity to gain an insight into the work of the MoJ. We are looking for individuals with excellent collaboration skills, who are approachable, enthusiastic, and wanting to deliver a quality service to our customers.