Executive Assistant

Executive Assistants sit at the heart of senior leadership. You work closely with one or more senior leaders, helping them stay focused, organised and effective in a fast moving, high profile environment.

You take full ownership of complex diaries, making sure time is used well and meetings are purposeful. You anticipate issues before they arise, spot clashes early, and make clear recommendations so decisions are made quickly. You handle travel, correspondence and briefings with care and attention to detail, always thinking a few steps ahead.

You act as a first point of contact, building strong relationships with colleagues and external partners. You communicate clearly and confidently, adapting your style to different audiences. You handle sensitive information with discretion and sound judgement, understanding the importance of trust in this role.

You are comfortable working independently, but you also enjoy being part of a wider team. You share good practice and help create a positive, professional working culture. You look for ways to improve how things are done and are not afraid to suggest smarter, simpler approaches.

This role suits you if you enjoy responsibility, variety and pace. You like solving problems, bringing order to complexity and making a real difference behind the scenes. Every day is different, and your work directly supports senior leaders to do their best work. If you are organised, proactive and resilient, you will thrive in this role.

The Crown Prosecution Service is based in England and Wales. If you’re applying for this role and live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you must let us know when accepting this offer as you need permission to work from your home address if hybrid working is part of your role. There’s no guarantee that we will grant this approval.

You must be aged 16 or over at the point of starting in this role. The expected start date is approximately 8–12 weeks after the application closing date. You are expected to commence employment as soon as possible following the expiry of your notice period. Requests for significantly later start dates may not be accommodated.

Your roles and responsibilities

• To monitor the senior leaders/manager’s correspondence, ensuring that appropriate, and timely action is taken to resolve issues, respond to enquiries and requests, and in general maintain business continuity.
• To ensure that in the absence of the senior manager, all briefings, submissions and draft replies produced for or on their behalf meet an equally high standard and are approved and submitted to the appropriate organisation/department in a timely manner.
• To monitor and co-ordinate Parliamentary Questions, Parliamentary Enquiries and Parliamentary Correspondence, adhering to strict deadlines
• To maintain confidentiality in all areas of work.
• To monitor and coordinate complaints handling for senior leaders.

A copy of the full job description is attached.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Recruitment process

The recruitment process consists of an online application and interview

Behaviours

You are asked to complete a statement of no more than 250 words for each of the following behaviours, setting out how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience match the specified behaviours and requirements:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

In addition, you need to demonstrate the following experience/technical skills required for this role:

• Strong verbal and written communications.
• Highly proficient in MS Teams, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint presentations, and drafting letters correspondence, emails, and coordinating briefings, and excel in high-quality correspondence handling in a fast-paced working environment.
• Diary management.
• Strong drafting skills, setting agendas, and minute taking.
• Experience of organising meetings for senior leaders with technical and digital support online and in-person.

You also need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

The panel has the right to assess the lead behaviour ‘Delivering at Pace’ first. If the standard on this behaviour isn’t met, the other behaviours won’t be considered and your application won’t progress. The panel also has the right to raise the minimum standard pass mark. The panel may also refer to the lead behaviour at the interview stage to determine merit order.

CV

You’re not required to upload your CV. However, when submitting your application there is a ‘CV section’. You are required to provide information about your employment and/or academic history for the past three years. The CV section will be used as supporting evidence, it won’t be assessed.

It’s your responsibility to provide the specified information in the requested format to ensure that you're considered for the post.

If you're unable to cover three years through employment or academic history, you must provide a character reference for clearance purposes.

Interview

The interviews are expected to take place week commencing 23 November 2026.

A member of our recruitment team will be in touch with guidance. If you have any queries about this, contact jonathan.fairclough@cps.gov.uk.

You should keep this week free or notify us if you're not available. We'll make every effort to accommodate your date preferences but we can't guarantee it.

We use behaviours to help us understand your experience, to see if you're a good fit for the role. You are assessed against EO in the Civil Service success profiles behaviours framework. We are assessing 4 behaviours at interview stage:

• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

Essential Experience/Technical Skills - assessed at interview.

Other

This is a full-time post. We do consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, always considering the operational needs of the department.

Please note that the CPS is unable to offer visa sponsorship. If you require visa sponsorship to work in the UK, you will not meet the eligibility criteria for this role.

Clearance

If successful, you are required to secure a Disclosure and Barring Service check and Security Check clearance, for which you must have a current valid UK address.

If successfully appointed, we ask you to complete a character enquiry form, nationality and immigration questionnaire and national security vetting form.

If you're a Crown Prosecution Service member of staff, you won’t need to do a Disclosure and Barring Service check as you already hold this clearance.

The job you’re applying for is covered by Article 3(a) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, consequently Section 4(2) of that Act doesn’t apply. You’re required to disclose all previous convictions and cautions including spent convictions. Failing to make a full declaration will result in withdrawing your offer of employment if our checks reveal convictions that haven’t been disclosed.

To be cleared to Security Check clearance level, you have to be able to meet the residency requirement in the Cabinet Office guidance. For the Crown Prosecution Service, this is three years within the last five years

Reserve list

If you're recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to the current vacancy, you will be put on a reserve list for 12 months. You may be offered another senior personal assistant post in the CPS if a vacancy comes up during this period. We may also approach candidates on the list to fill other roles that require similar knowledge and experience.

Civil Service Commission

If you’re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact Strategic.Resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, please click on the following link to the Civil Service Commission complaints page Recruitment Complaints - Civil Service Commission

Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles can be found at https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/recruitment/

Details of the Civil Service Nationality Rules are located at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules

Candidates are subject to UK immigration requirements. For the most up-to-date information on the requirements of working in the UK, please go to the UK Visas and Immigration website at https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/work-visas

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.