Structure of a Competition
Structure of a Competition
JABS fulfils its statutory responsibility to recommend individuals for judicial office through a series of selection exercises, referred to as competitions.
Appointment to judicial office is a competitive process. While the details vary depending on the role being recruited, all competitions follow six broad stages:
1. Planning
2. Advertising and applications
3. Sift
4. Consultations
5. Interview
6. Recommendation
Competitions are undertaken by a panel of JABS Board members. Depending on the role being recruited, panels may also include lay advisers, legal advisers or tribunal members.
For court and legal tribunal roles, panels are chaired by a lay member and include an equal number of lay and legal or judicial members. For some tribunal competitions, specialist tribunal members may sit on the panel to provide subject-matter expertise.
Starting a Competition
Before any of these stages can commence, the competition has to start. This is done by way of an official request sent to JABS by the Scottish Government. This request will confirm what the office being recruited is, how many vacancies there are and, for court roles, the locations of the vacancies and details of any special requirements (such as the need for people with specific civil or criminal backgrounds for example).
Planning and Outreach
Once the official request has been received, planning for the competition commences. During the planning stage a panel will be convened comprising of four (for summary sheriff, sheriff and members of the First-tier or Upper Tribunal) or six (for sheriff principal, chamber president or senator) members.
The panel will develop the assessment methodology used to evaluate applicants’ ability to perform effectively in the role. Working alongside the Judicial Office who provide the role profile for the office being recruited and other key stakeholders, the panel identifies the judicial and personal qualities required, and designs the assessment methods most likely to provide meaningful insight into each applicant’s capability at both sift and interview.
The panel is supported by the Business Management Unit in preparing the application form and interview materials. This work generally begins two to three months before the role is advertised and aligns with the Judicial Institute’s training timelines for successful candidates.
The panel will also undertake outreach, which can be in the form of an online information event, usually held via MS Teams, by producing information videos which are added to the JABS Youtube channel or a combination of both.
Advertising/Applications
The advertising period for all competitions will be four weeks. Feedback received from applicants from previous competitions suggested that the three week advertising period was not sufficient, this lead to the Board agreeing to extend this.
During this period, applicants will be able to access the online application portal used by JABS – GetGot. A good application takes time so applicants will be able to save and revisit their application as often as needed until the application is submitted (or the advertising period closes).
The application window will normally close at 12.00 noon on the closing date. Applicants who have started an application will receive automatic reminders on the lead up to the closing date. JABS generally speaking will not accept late applications.
Sifting
Once applications are submitted and the advertising window has closed, an initial check is undertaken to ensure that all applicants meet any statutory eligibility requirements for the role in question. Once it is confirmed that eligibility has been met, applicants progress to the sift.
Applications are provided to the panel who will then assess them against the criteria for the role. This is called the sift. This is done on a ‘name blind’ basis – the panel will not be given the name or identifying information for the applicant.
The sift is an assessment of applicants ability to meet the criteria set out in the role profile. For court and tribunal legal roles, assessment of legal competence will be done by the legal/judicial members of the panel, whilst the personal and judicial elements will be assessed by the whole panel.
For ordinary tribunal roles, any specialist knowledge required will be assessed by a tribunal member sitting as a specialist.
Depending on the size of the competition, the sift may take a few days or a number of weeks to conclude. Once the sift is concluded, the panel will meet to determine who is to be invited to interview. Those who are to be interviewed are then subject to the consultation process.
More detail about how we reach decisions at sift can be found on our decision process.
[Potential to have a video of a Board member speaking about the sift process here]
Consultations
JABS has a statutory requirement as set out in section 12(3) of the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 to ensure that anyone recommended for appointment is “of good character”.
To assist with this, JABS consults with a number of stakeholders including COPFS, professional bodies (such as the Law Society, Faculty of Advocates or bodies relevant to non-legal roles being recruited), and others. Consultees are asked provide any information which may be relevant to JABS in the assessment of the suitability of the applicant to judicial office.
Where consultees provide information which may be relevant, interviewees will be made aware of this at interview and will be given the opportunity to discuss any findings with the panel.
Separately, candidates selected for interview need to complete an enhanced disclosure. This is carried out by Disclosure Scotland and costs £25 which is paid by the candidate. The JABS Business Management Unit will conduct identity checks with interview candidates. This involves a short MS Teams meeting where candidates will be asked to provide evidence of their identity which will then be sent to Disclosure Scotland in support of the enhanced disclosure.
Finally, JABS will, in conjunction with our partner Giant Screening, arrange to have social and general media background checks undertaken.
Interviews
The purpose of interviews is to gather additional information on candidates’ legal (or, in the case of ordinary tribunal competitions, specialist) and personal/judicial competencies and their suitability for the role. The interview may also be used to clarify any matters arising from the candidates’ application form or the consultation response received in respect of any candidate.
Interviews are challenging and will involve an assessment of candidates’ legal (or specialist where appropriate) knowledge and their personal and judicial skills and competence. Interviews will be conducted by the same panel who conducted the sift.
The structure of the interview will vary depending on the specific role, but will always include an assessment of legal (or specialist in the case of ordinary tribunal roles) knowledge and skill, as well as questions to test your personal and judicial qualities.
The length of interviews will vary depending on the role being recruited, but typically will last anywhere from two hours five hours for the most senior roles.
Recommendations
The final stage is the recommendations for appointment. Once the interviews are concluded, the panel will meet to decide which candidates should be recommended for the roles. Making this recommendation involves more than just an assessment of performance at interview, the information contained in the application form is also included in conversations surrounding these decisions.
Once the panel has made their decisions, the full Board convenes to confirm them. This gives the Board the opportunity to ensure that the competition was undertaken in line with JABS policy and procedure and to offer Board members not involved in the competition the opportunity to speak with the panel.
Once the Board has confirmed the recommendations made, the final stage of the competition is to submit the recommendations to the Scottish Government. Once this recommendation has been made, the competition is effectively complete and JABS involvement in the process ends.
After the Competition
Whilst the competition itself ends after the recommendations are submitted to the Scottish Government, that’s not the end of JABS work. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, a wash-up meeting will be held where the competition will be reviewed and lessons learned will be considered.
As well as this, JABS will provide feedback to those unsuccessful at sift and at interview who ask for it. Depending in the size and scale of the competition it may take several weeks for this to be prepared and issued.