Intelligence and Tasking Analyst

Do you like using a range of information to solve problems?

Do you like to create intelligence that serves the needs of a wide range of stakeholders?

Do you thrive when working in a fast-paced environment?

If you answer YES to the questions above, this could be the role for you!

As part of the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) wider ambitions, the Regulatory and Advice Service (RAS) is undergoing a transformational change. It’s moving from an historic model of specific inspection activity to one that offers an intelligence-driven approach.

This intelligence-led approach will identify and pre-emptively address risks to environmental outcomes, support farmers and land managers in meeting these and ensuring public money maximises the benefits to the environment and agricultural communities.

Specifically, working with colleagues in our Geospatial team, we are developing an Intelligence, Monitoring and Tasking Unit that will use a range of information sources to monitor risks to compliance with payment scheme rules and their environmental outcomes. We will use the intelligence you provide to target, deploy, and measure the efficacy of a range of interventions, including visit activity, to effectively mitigate these risks.

We are holding drop-in sessions to give candidates the opportunity to ask questions and find out more about the role. Please join us on MS Teams via the links below:

Friday 1st March, 12:30 - 13:30

Tuesday 5th March 12:30 - 13:30

The (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), delivering over £2 billion in payments to farmers, traders and landowners annually.

We are an Operational Delivery Profession organisation, with the majority of our people delivering day to day services to our customers and stakeholders.

We make excellent delivery happen, empowering agricultural and rural communities to create a better place to live.
We manage over 40 schemes, and also make payments on behalf of Natural England, to ensure we have a healthy rural economy, strong and sustainable rural communities, and to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Our vision is to create a great place for people living in this country. We have developed a set of four strategic objectives covering our policy outcomes and corporate objectives. These objectives help us to deliver our ambitious vision to build our green and healthy future and provide a framework for all of the important work that we carry out.

The new Intelligence, Monitoring and Tasking Unit is being put together in order to create intelligence from information gathered by RPA and other Defra departments. This intelligence will be used by the team and by stakeholders to identify areas where there is a high risk of non-compliance with the RPA’s managed funding schemes. Once these higher risk areas have been identified the team will then contribute towards the targeting and testing of interventions that would reduce the potential error rate. Therefore, this team will have a key role in saving taxpayer money from being improperly distributed and having a positive impact on the environment through upholding RPA’s environmental schemes.

The Intelligence and Tasking Analyst will have a leading role in the production of intelligence that will help the Agency identify and tackle non-compliant trends and behaviours. You will work independently to produce your own analytical projects and will work within the Unit to collate, refine and further analyse the work of other intelligence officers.

You will assist the Agency at regional and national forums, and with engagement with stakeholders. You will use intelligence analysis to improve the understanding of key non-compliance / fraud issues and improve the capability of the department.

You will do this by: 

• Conducting in-depth evaluations of information from departmental activities to identify where there is a high-risk of non-compliance or failure to meet regulatory requirements or scheme rules. 
• Ensuring the integrity and utility of the Intelligence and data received, providing support and advice where required. 
• Working with other teams across the department to identify and task appropriate interventions and subsequently evaluate the effectiveness of these.

Key Responsibilities 

• Collation, analysis, interpretation and reporting of intelligence relating to emerging risks to regulatory compliance and risk of fraud and error in the farming, food producer and agricultural sector. 
• Identifying opportunities to enhance intelligence gathering for yourself and for the entire unit.
• Identification and Tasking of appropriate interventions to deal with the non-compliance risks identified and evaluation of the effectiveness of these.
• Collation of data from activities both associated with specific cases as well as in relation to farming and food producer populations. 
• In-depth evaluation of information from departmental activities to identify where there is a high-risk of non-compliance or failure to meet regulatory requirements or scheme rules. 
• Develop mechanisms for reporting identified trends and concerns to stakeholders in the wider Agency and Defra and oversee tasking and implementation of any interventions and strategies.      
• Contribute to reporting across departmental interventions to facilitate decision making, working closely with colleagues within the geospatial and RAS teams and in the wider Agency. 
• Ensuring activities are completed within required timescales to follow any legislative requirements and to meet agency goals.  
• Liaise with a wide range of stakeholders with often competing goals to agree the optimum approach to selections of activities/interventions and completing an intervention strategy document to reflect the agreement.
• Liaising with auditors, in particular the national audit office, you will present to them the teams' analytical findings and methodology to demonstrate adequate controls are in place to tackle fraud and error.
• Ensure that all activities undertaken are in line with the Agency’s data protection and information security protocols, and handling of intelligence.