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Salary
This role requires an additional security check - you must have at least 5 years consecutive residency in the UK. Details in the ‘Things you need to know’ section.
New entrants to the Civil Service will start in the minimum salary shown.
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Investigation
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About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information
Location
We operate hybrid working, allowing you to work up to two days a week from home, subject to operational demands.
About the job
Job summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.
If you have an open and enquiring mind, love problem-solving and decision-making based on rules, precedent, and in-depth analysis, and if you can thrive in a fast-paced environment, adapting to changing priorities and demands… this could be the role you’re looking for.
As an Intelligence Officer you’ll be joining one of the most exciting roles in Government and Law Enforcement, so we’re looking for dynamic and hardworking individuals who have a passion for this exciting, ambitious and varied work. You'll need an aptitude to learn new skills, including navigating and interrogating IT systems.
This role requires a keen attention to detail, and you'll draw on your tenacity, resilience, and flexibility. You’ll need to exercise good judgement and discretion, along with the ability to understand and apply legislation, policy, and procedure, and be able to work flexibly, both individually and collectively.
When it comes to reducing alcohol fraud, smuggling and other felonious activities, we try to support the criminal justice system with our good work.
There may be a need for some travel, working away from your home office and may require overnight stays. Plus some additional hours above and beyond the norm, including:
- short notice changes
- some evening/weekend/bank holiday work
- being on-call (1 week in 4, pre-rostered)
Once fully trained, you will be financially compensated at the rate of £10,100pa. This payment is known as Flexibility Payment Level 2 (FP2) and it is paid in addition to your salary. See the attachment for full details.
Job description
The Alcohol Intelligence Coordination Centre (AICC) is made up of officers from the Risk & Intelligence Service (RIS) and Fraud Investigative Services (FIS) who work alongside a dedicated resource from Border Force (BF).
AICC provides a single point of contact for HMRC's intelligence relating to alcohol fraud. The team produces real-time intelligence to build maximum impact against the illicit alcohol trade using, civil, criminal and disruption methods.
You will have a real impact on our work, and have the opportunity to:
- support the initial development of intelligence for internal and external customers, real-time profiling and targeting alongside the Border Force Alcohol Task Force at the frontier and inland
- communicate regularly with key internal government team members and work together to meet shared objectives. Coordinating and adapting your own workload and prioritising it
- be the analytical risk-assessing information go-to person who helps develop quality intelligence products and services to wider HMRC colleagues
- embed yourself in the Criminal Justice System, over time you will become accountable for decisions made based on our legal responsibilities, at a high standard that will always be scrutinised
Training
We recruit candidates based on potential and will provide full training to give you the skills and experience needed to succeed. Successful candidates will need to undertake a training period of approximately 12-months.
This will include online and on-the-job learning, a ten-week training course (including 4 weeks residential) and a 2-day Officer Safety Training course. The Officer Safety Training includes physical activity and requires an appropriate level of fitness. This is mandatory and it's crucial to focus on your health too.
Take part in, for example, jogging, stretching and movement exercises, self-defence, and restraint techniques.
Throughout the 12-months you will have a Practical Training Officer to guide you through the process and will receive support from your management team and colleagues.
Successful completion of all training is vital for the role. We provide candidates with as much support as possible but those who do not complete - and pass - all required training cannot remain in the role and may need to be moved to an alternative role within HMRC. If that is not possible, your employment may be terminated.
Training will continue after the initial 12-month period and throughout your career.
You can find out more on our careers website, or ask our colleagues a question (questions relating to this advert or an individual application must be sent to the RIS Recruitment Service, details below).
Person specification
Joining our team of around 15 colleagues, your responsibilities would include:
- analysing information to develop intelligence products on alcohol smuggling for criminal or civil intervention
- collaborate to identify and prioritise intervention opportunities for HMRC teams and external partners through desk-based activities and operational deployments
- engage with counter fraud professionals within HMRC and external law enforcement agencies across the UK and overseas to disrupt cross border smuggling and inland evasion
- report and present your analysis and recommendations to colleagues and managers in HMRC, partners in other law enforcement agencies and occasionally give evidence court
Essential Criteria
A driving licence is required for this role. To be considered, you must:
- confirm in your application that you currently hold a full UK driving licence (you will be asked to provide evidence of a valid licence if successful at interview)
- clearly state in your application that you are prepared to drive official vehicles as part of this role
To be successful in this role the following would also be an advantage, but is not a requirement:
- current working experience of intelligence development or criminal investigation
- good knowledge and experience of Alcohol Fraud
Licences
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Making Effective Decisions
- Delivering at Pace
- Working Together
Benefits
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
- Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 27% of their salary.
- Family friendly policies.
- Personal support.
- Coaching and development.
To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service.
Flexibility Payment (once fully trained)
This post attracts Flexibility Payment Level 2 (FP2), paid monthly with your salary.
This FP2 allows HMRC flexibility to change your work pattern, at short notice to meet business needs. You will be expected to work longer hours from time to time, at weekends and outside your normal working hours/days (including bank holidays).
There is a requirement to work an additional 275 hrs per year.
In applying for a position and accepting the FP you agree that you can and will meet those flexibility requirements. There may be certain criteria that will enable you to work at level 1a, but this will need to be agreed by the vacancy holder. Please make sure you fully understand this and speak to the vacancy holder prior to applying.
Please note if you are already in receipt of an existing FIS/RIS attendance allowance or payment you should be aware that moving to a new role may affect any Transition Protection available under the Flexibility Payment proposals.
Please note that allowances are subject to annual review and are not guaranteed.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
How to apply
The selection process consists of 2 stages:
1. Application
Please provide a:
- CV up to 500 words. Use the Job History section to provide relevant details from the last 3 years, plus any other roles you feel are relevant, and include a brief description of your role, key responsibilities and achievements. These should be aligned to the key responsibilities above. Any additional wording over 500 words will not be considered. You must confirm that you hold a full UK driving licence and that you're prepared to drive official vehicles.
- personal statement up to 750 words. Use this to provide working examples and outcomes that demonstrate how your experience aligns with the requirements of the role, including the key responsibilities.
Your CV and personal statement must not contain any personal details which could be used to identify you.
If we receive a large number of applications, an initial sift may be conducted using your CV. If you pass the initial sift your application will progress to full sift, and your personal statement will also be assessed.
2. Interview
Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams with a panel of up to 3 people, and will last up to 60 minutes. The interview will consist of:
- Behaviour questions - we recommend that you review the Success Profiles framework and consider working examples and outcomes that demonstrate the Behaviours for this role. A typical example of a Behaviour question might be 'Tell us about a time where you've had to deliver a difficult message'.
- Strength questions - there’s no expectation to prepare for these, as we’re looking for your instinctive, natural responses. A typical Strength question might be 'How quickly do you recover from setbacks?'
Using the STAR format will help you to structure your answers.
Vacancy timeline
Dates are provided as a guide only, and may change:
- sift/shortlisting: We’ll aim to release results by Monday 29th April
- interviews: week commencing 6th May
Additional Security Clearance is required for this role
In addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, you must pass National Security Vetting at Security Check (SC) clearance level (without restrictions).
You will need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of security vetting being undertaken, which for SC is 5 years UK residency prior to your vetting application. If you do not have a minimum of 5 years consecutive residency in the UK then your application may be rejected*.
- It may be possible to gather enough evidence on which to base a vetting clearance decision when you worked abroad during the required residency period, if during that time abroad you served as a UK Civil Servant, a Crown Servant, worked in any other UK Public Body or as a member of the Armed Forces and you were resident in the UK prior to your term abroad.
If successful, a job offer will be conditional on currently holding - or subsequently passing - NSV at SC clearance level, without restrictions.
Reserve list
A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
After interview, a single merit list will be created, and appointments will be made in strict merit order until the set demand is filled in each location. If successful, you will be informed which locations are available when we reach your position on the merit list.
Eligibility
To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days(Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you.
If you do make a mistake, please contact us via: ubsrecruitmentexcellence@hmrc.gov.uk – Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – 340728 & vacancy closing date 21/04/2024’. Please note that we cannot amend or re-open your application if you have submitted your full application in the interests of fair and open recruitment.
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers
This role is not suitable for contractual homeworkers.
Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact the UBS Recruitment Excellence Team via ubsrecruitmentexcellence@hmrc.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Diversity and Inclusion
At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues and creating an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.
Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people, from all backgrounds, with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.
We’re committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC and want everyone to feel valued and supported to achieve their potential.
Click here for more information on how we make this happen.
Terms and Conditions
Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process.
Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations.
Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
New entrants will join on the minimum of the pay band.
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
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
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
Recruitment team
Further information
In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via complaints.ubsrecruitment@hmrc.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their website.
