Terms of Appointment
Nature of Appointment: You are not an employee of the Home Office or HMICFRS. Accordingly, nothing in this document shall be construed as, or taken to create, a contract of employment between you and the Department or Her Majesty’s Government.
Appointment Term: Your appointment will be for a period of up to five years. There is a possibility of re-appointment, subject to a satisfactory annual appraisal of performance and Ministerial agreement.
Remuneration: £197,313 per annum.
Time Commitment: Full time public appointment.
Location: Flexible within England and Wales. However, in line with the Government’s Places for Growth programme, HMICFRS will be moving to a regional structure so this role will not be London based.
Annual leave: You will be entitled to take 30 annual leave days per year. In addition, you will receive eight days Bank and Public Holidays and one privilege day for the Queen’s Birthday, to be taken at specific times of the year.
Pension: If you are currently a serving police officer, your current pension arrangements under the Police Pensions Regulations will continue for the duration of your appointment as HMCI, provided you a) elect to transfer from your current police force to HMICFRS and do not retire, and b) do not elect to opt out of the Police Pension Scheme. As HMCI, your pension will be administered and payable by the relevant police force on behalf of the Home Office. HMCI is included in Schedule A of the Regulations as a “member of a police force” for the purposes of abatement. If you are a retired officer currently in receipt of a police pension, or should you choose to retire from the police service on appointment, under Section K4 of the Regulations the relevant authority may, in their discretion, withdraw the whole or any part of your pension for the duration of your appointment as HMCI.
Alternatively, the successful candidate will be eligible to join the Civil Service pension scheme. Full details can be found on the Civil Service Pensions website at: www.civilservice.gov.uk/my-civil-service/pensions.
Please note:
- If you previously worked for an employer who participated in the Civil Service Pension Scheme, different conditions may apply, as may your benefits if you left the Civil Service with an early retirement, severance, or redundancy package. Additional details can be found on the website: civilservice-pensions.gov.uk.
- Abatement of pension may apply if you are in receipt of a public service pension. In addition, civil servants who have been granted early retirement (under the terms of the Compulsory Early Retirement, Compulsory Early Severance, Flexible Early Retirement or Flexible Early Severance schemes) may be required to repay all or part of their lump sum compensation payments if their re-employment commences during the period represented by the compensation payment.
Availability: The successful candidates will be encouraged to take up their appointment as soon as possible, subject to the successful completion of pre-appointment checks and security clearance.
Security clearance: The successful candidate will be required to have / obtain Security Check (SC) level security clearance and police vetting in order to take up post. He or she must also be willing to obtain security clearance to Developed Vetting (DV) level once in post. Pre-appointment checks will also be undertaken on immigration and criminal convictions. It usually takes between 4-6 weeks to obtain the security clearance. The role will be offered on a conditional basis until the successful candidate has passed all checks. The successful candidate will be encouraged to take up the appointment as soon as possible, subject to the successful completion of all pre-appointment checks.
Confidentiality: You will be subject to the provisions of the Official Secrets Act and required to exercise care in the use of official information acquired during official duties, and not to disclose information which is held in confidence.
Disqualification for appointment: There are circumstances in which an individual will not be considered for appointment. They include:
- people who have received a prison sentence or suspended sentence of 3 months or more in the last 5 years;
- people who are the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or interim order;
- in certain circumstances, those who have had an earlier term of appointment terminated;
- anyone who is under a disqualification order under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986; and
- anyone who has been removed from trusteeship of a charity.
Further advice about disqualification for appointment can be given by contacting the Public Appointments Team on publicappointments@homeoffice.gov.uk
Standards in public life: You will be expected to demonstrate high standards of corporate and personal conduct. Candidates will be expected to abide by the “Seven Principles of Public Life” set out by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (see below, page 15).
Registration of interests: The purpose of these provisions is to avoid any danger of a public appointee being influenced, or appearing to be influenced, by their private interests in the exercise of their public duties.
Public appointments require the highest standards of propriety, involving impartiality, integrity and objectivity, in relation to the stewardship of public funds and the oversight and management of all related activities. This means that any private, voluntary, charitable, or political interest which might be material and relevant to the work of the body concerned should be declared. It is important, therefore, that you consider your circumstances when applying for a public appointment and identify any potential conflicts of interest, whether real or perceived.
There is a requirement to declare any actual or potential conflict of interest you may have in being appointed as the HMCI in a separate form. Any actual or perceived conflicts of interest will be fully explored by the Panel at interview stage.
Political activity: You will need to show political impartiality during your time as the HMCI and must declare any significant party-political activity you undertake in the period of your appointment. Details of the successful candidate’s declared political activity must be published by appointing departments when the appointment is publicised.
The Political Activity Declaration will be kept separate from your application and will only be seen by the Panel prior to interview – the Panel may at that stage explore with candidates any potential for conflict of interest. It is appreciated that political activities may have given you relevant skills, including experience gained from committee work, collective decision making, resolving conflict and public speaking. If, therefore, you have had such experience and you consider it relevant to your application for this post, you may if you choose include it separately in the main body of your application.
Disability Confident: The Home Office is an accredited user of the Government’s “Disability Confident” disability symbol, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled applicants. Applicants who meet the minimum criteria in the job specification are guaranteed an interview. Selection will be on merit. If you wish to apply for consideration under this scheme, please complete the form in Annex B. It is not necessary to state the nature of your disability.
Whether you choose to apply under the Disability Confident scheme or not, you can still ask us to make particular arrangements for you when attending an interview. You can also contact us if you want to discuss the criteria for the role or have questions regarding your application.
Equal Opportunities Monitoring: The Home Office is committed to providing equal opportunities for all, irrespective of, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
As part of the application process we ask candidates to complete equal opportunities monitoring information. This will help us to monitor selection decisions to assess whether equality of opportunity is being achieved. The information in Annex C will be treated as confidential and used for statistical purposes only. The form will not be treated as part of your application.
Centre for Public Appointments Database: As set out in Annex B, if you consent, we will retain your CV and contact details for the purposes of alerting you to any opportunities that may arise in future. We will also share your CV and contact details with the Centre for Public Appointments in the Cabinet Office who may use it for this purpose. They may also share it with other Government Departments so that they can contact you about such opportunities. You may withdraw your consent to your information being processed for this purpose at any time by contacting dpo@homeoffice.gov.uk.
Complaints
If you are not completely satisfied with the way your application is handled at any stage of the competition, please raise any complaint in the first instance with the Public Appointments Team at: publicappointments@homeoffice.gov.uk
We will reply to your complaint within 20 days.
If, after receiving our response you are still not satisfied, you may contact the Commissioner for Public Appointments:
The Commissioner for Public Appointments Room G/8, Ground Floor 1 Horse Guards Road London SW1A 2HQ. Tel: 0207 271 0849.