Senior Advisory Lawyer (Band 1/Grade 6)

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is recruiting a Senior Advisory Lawyer to join its Legal Services Divisions (LSD) Advisory, Legislation and Litigation Strategy (ALLS) team.

The ALLS team was established in April 2025 and is responsible for all advisory legal work for the HSE, except any arising from the HSEs enforcement work, which is handled elsewhere in the Division. The ALLS team also provides some advisory legal services to another regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation.

This is a key leadership and delivery role and one which will contribute directly to public confidence, in terms of HSE, the wider justice system and the Government Legal Profession. The team covers an interesting and wide range of complex, fast-moving and challenging work. This includes advising on policy, public law, statutory interpretation, statutory instrument (SI) drafting and engagement with a number of other Government Departments, stakeholders and regulators.

The ALLS team is expanding. This post is an exciting opportunity to help shape, and influence the team as one of its Senior Lawyers.

The team has already delivered successfully a wide range of work including SI drafting, advising on complex policy and litigation matters (including ones spanning multiple parts of Government), representation at statutory inquiries, and advising and working on Bills.

The team provides risk-based legal advice on a wide range of areas, from chemicals regulation to workplace safety, and from the EU reset to inquests and inquiries. In addition to being part of the senior leadership of the team (and wider division and HSE), the role will involve providing legal advice on policies and the interpretation of primary and secondary legislation, as well as advising on and drafting secondary legislation.

The legal issues HSE encounters are often complex, wide-ranging and novel. The ALLS team works closely with policy and other colleagues to support them to make clear, proper and lawful decisions. As with other lawyers in the Government Legal Profession, this is done at all times considering legal risk and anticipating legal challenges.

We are looking for a highly-capable, experienced and self-starting lawyer with demonstrable leadership skills. You must have had experience of managing significant stakeholder relationships, e.g. with clients. You will also have experience of SI drafting, inquiries work and either conducting or advising on litigation on behalf of a public body.

In addition to that skillset, you will be expected to take conduct of the more complex advisory work, support the Deputy Director of Legal Services in the leadership of the team and line-management of a mini-team, and contribute to the leadership of the Divisions Senior Management Team. The Senior Lawyer role is part of HSEs wider Senior Leadership cadre and as such, you will be expected to contribute to that, too.

This is a rare opportunity for a motivated and experienced lawyer to join in leading and developing the next phase of the establishment of a legal function. You will need to be comfortable with fast-moving and occasionally uncertain situations, bringing your skills to bear to support your own team and colleagues across the organisation.

Responsibilities

• Be a member of the Advisory, Legislation and Litigation Strategy teams Senior Leadership Team, leading it and the wider Division through periods of change and contributing to, and assisting in, implementation of changes to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the teams and Divisions work.
• As a member of the Divisions Senior Leadership Team, contributing to the wider strategic direction and management of the Division and HSE.
• Managing relationships with and supporting senior stakeholders, including by providing strategic, proportionate and risk-based advice.
• Providing legal advice to HSE on a wide range of topics, including operational and policy issues.
• Managing actively a personal caseload of the teams most complex and challenging matters, including by providing advice, drafting secondary legislation and supporting the development of others in the team to do the same, and providing strategic direction to litigation (including private and public law challenges, statutory and planning inquiries, and inquests).
• Leading a mini-team, managing their performance and supporting them in their professional development.
• Supporting those you line-manage, ensuring that all matters for which they are responsible for are progressed in a risk-based, timely and efficient manner, to high professional standards.
• Providing oversight and delivery of legal training personally or with or by others - to a range of policy and operational colleagues across HSE, identifying suitable opportunities to provide such training.
• Drafting SIs or similar technical legal documents of varying complexity.

Essential Skills and Criteria:

• Excellent understanding of - and proven track record of advising public bodies on - public law (including advising on legislation assimilated from the European Union), from either a litigation or advisory perspective
• Proven leadership and line management skills, with a track record of supporting and developing colleagues to achieve their full potential
• The ability to think strategically and creatively in showing sound legal judgment, appreciating and identifying legal issues and risks in their wider context and advising accordingly
• Excellent analytical and knowledge-development skills, including the ability to assimilate quickly new areas of law and policy, and using secure legal research to produce timely and fit for purpose advice
• The ability to build and maintain effective relationships with a range of colleagues and stakeholders, both externally and across organisations/departments or the wider Civil Service
• Experience of inquiries work, e.g. working for/on a statutory inquiry, representing a body/department/organisation at an inquiry, or advising on complex areas of inquiries law.

Working Pattern

Due to business need, this is a full-time role. We are amenable to the possibility of a full-time working pattern (i.e. 37 hours) being compressed over four days.

Travel

This post will require occasional travel to HSEs headquarters in Bootle and other HSE offices, as well as occasional attendance at courts, case conferences and meetings nationwide. This may involve overnight stays however, this aspect of the work can usually be planned in advance.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement, and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work.

There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities, e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, you will be expected to attend the office, or other business-related site, for 60% of your working week. The arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account.

Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.