National Legal Trainee Scheme - Barrister - January 2025 (October 2026 start)

Are you an aspiring barrister with an interest in criminal law? Apply for the Crown Prosecution Service legal trainee scheme now and start your training pathway in October 2026.

At the Crown Prosecution Service, we re responsible for delivering justice through the independent and effective prosecution of crime. We re the largest provider of criminal law pupillages in England and Wales, offering you a comprehensive training and a permanent role at the employed Bar after successfully completing our legal trainee scheme. We re proud to be recognised by our legal trainees in the Legal 500 Future Lawyers survey 2023 for our legal technology, job satisfaction and work-life balance.

As a pupil barrister, you re supported by a highly trained supervisor who offers guidance and opportunities to develop your understanding of working as a prosecutor. Your first six months are non-practising completing advocacy training, legal courses and an optional secondment in chambers. During your remaining six months, you put your training into practice building your advocacy skills, presenting cases in court and working with criminal justice partners.

You can develop your knowledge by working in specialist crime areas including rape and serious sexual offences, organised crime and fraud. We re committed to your professional growth and expect, following your initial role in the magistrates court, that you have the necessary skills to apply for promotion opportunities based in the Crown Court including senior crown prosecutor and senior crown advocate roles.

Hear from our Crown Prosecution Service legal trainees, www.cps.gov.uk/careers/legal-trainee.

We currently have two adverts live, one for a pupil barrister role and one for a trainee solicitor role. You can only submit one application for these vacancies. If you apply for both positions, or the same position more than once, we will only accept an application for the first role you applied for and will automatically reject the second.

In addition, we have two adverts live for Welsh speakers, if you are an aspiring barrister or solicitor who speaks Welsh, we encourage you to apply under one of those adverts., Our legal trainee scheme is an extensive training programme to help you become a fully qualified barrister. You gain valuable experience in all areas of criminal law, from reviewing cases and preparing pre-charge advice to meeting with victims and witnesses. You re guaranteed a permanent position as a crown prosecutor or crown advocate after successfully completing your pupillage., + To prepare cases for prosecution on summary-only and either-way offences in the magistrates court working with caseworkers, meeting witnesses and supporting counsel.

• To advise police and other investigators on charging decisions, and work with criminal justice partners, defence lawyers and counsel on casework.

• To shadow prosecutors at magistrates and Crown Court, and observe advocacy.

• To attend conferences with police and counsel, and meetings with victims and witnesses.

• To carry out legal research and provide feedback to your legal supervisor and other Crown Prosecution Service colleagues.

• To work with a supervisor throughout your pupillage, keeping accurate records of work and meeting to discuss your training progress., We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Making Effective Decisions

• Seeing the Big Picture

• Delivering at Pace

• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Undergraduate Degree

• Postgraduate Qualifications, You re guaranteed either a crown prosecutor or crown advocate role after successfully completing your legal trainee scheme.

The Crown Prosecution Service is passionate about ensuring that we are a top performing organisation and a great place to work. We are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and creating a culture where everyone can bring their whole self to work, and individuality is truly appreciated.

We want to ensure all our employees can thrive at work and home and offer a range of support to achieve a balance. This includes where possible, flexibility of working hours and flexibility to support caring responsibilities. Your working week is spent in either court or the office to ensure you get the most from your supervisor and training.

We also offer a range of benefits:

• a Civil Service contributory pension of up to 28.9%

• 25 days leave, increasing to 30 days after 5 years

• an extra privilege day to mark the King’s birthday

• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave

• Cycle2Work scheme, employee savings

• up to £350 each year to spend on personal development, + your Bar Practice Course or Common Professional Examination if your undergraduate degree is in a subject other than law if this is the case for you, you should select ‘other’ under the qualification title.

Second stage video interview

If you pass the first recruitment stage, you are invited to a video interview. Invitations to the video interviews are emailed separately directly from our recruitment team. These are sent between 6 and 7 February 2025 full guidance and instructions for the video interview process are provided with your invitation.

If you require any reasonable adjustments for the video interview, please contact earlycareers@cps.gov.uk by 1pm on 6 February 2025.

Any requests after this time may not be able to be accommodated.

You can access the video interview system from 10 – 14 February 2025 and you must have fully completed and submitted your video interview by 1pm on 14 February 2025.

We want to understand why you want to work in the Crown Prosecution Service. We assess your motivation and strengths at this stage to determine your suitability for the role.

The panel reserve the right to mark the lead strength at shortlist and raise the minimum standard pass mark for this strength at this stage in the selection process.

Third stage final interview and assessment

If you pass the second recruitment stage, you’re invited to an assessment and interview with a Crown Prosecution Service panel. You re given full guidance and instructions about this process with your invitation.

Interviews take place from 10 March to 4 April 2025 through Microsoft Teams.

You re invited to book an interview slot on our online booking system from 4 March 2024 at 1pm.

We ask that you note the dates that the interview and assessments are due to take place. However, these dates may be subject to change, and we can t guarantee alternative interview dates.

Assessment criteria interview and assessment stage

You re assessed against the Civil Service behaviour criteria at both legal assessment and interview. You need to consider your personal skills, qualities, experience and how these match the specified behaviours and requirements as detailed in the job description. You also need to demonstrate the Crown Prosecution Service or Civil Service values.

The assessed behaviours are:

• making effective decisions

• seeing the bigger picture

• delivering at pace

• communicating and influencing

The panel reserve the right to mark the lead behaviour (making effective decisions) at interview and assessment and raise the minimum standard pass mark for this behaviour at this stage in the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments

Diversity at the Crown Prosecution Service is about inclusion, embracing differences and ensuring our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve. We want our people to feel that they belong and can thrive, regardless of their background, identify or culture.

As a disability confident employer, we’re happy to support requests for reasonable adjustments and improve your recruitment experience. If you’d like any reasonable adjustments made to our recruitment process, let us know on your application or contact earlycareers@cps.gov.uk to discuss with our team.

One part of the casework psychometric test is timed and must be completed within 10 minutes.

We consider all requests for reasonable adjustments at any stage within the recruitment process in line with our policy.

Locations

These posts are available nationally. You re asked to confirm the location where you would prefer to be based. We make offers in merit order and try to offer your preferred location. However, we can t guarantee this.

Your training can only take place in the one location – the one you accept when you’re offered your post. Here you are assigned your supervisor for the duration of your training. We can’t accommodate changes once you’ve accepted or during your post.

Submit your top three location choices on your application form in order of preference.

If you re successful, you may be placed in any of the advertised locations these are subject to change. Your final location offer reflects the organisation s business needs.

This pupillage requires daily court or office attendance in the geographical location you re posted to. You need to do regular courses to complete your training period, including overnight stays covered under the travel and subsistence code. The Crown Prosecution Service is a Disability Confident employer committed to making reasonable adjustments to support daily attendance at court and your office.

We consider requests for flexible, part-time working and job share, bearing in mind the operational needs of the department.

Information sessions

We hold a series of information sessions before the closing dates for these vacancies. The sessions are live webchats where you can ask us any queries about your application, the process or the roles. You can register here:

• 9 January 2025, 1pm – 2pm: https://meetandengage.com/am4wm5f1l

• 22 January 2025, 4pm – 5pm: https://meetandengage.com/am4wm6agl

Eligibility

If you apply and are later found not to meet the academic, nationality or immigration criteria, you are removed from the selection process. Conditional offers of employment are withdrawn where candidates don t meet these requirements.

If you have already completed your pupillage with the Crown Prosecution Service, you re not eligible to apply.

We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. Find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace – National Inclusion Week , The Crown Prosecution Service

Clearance

If successful, you’re required to secure Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) clearance and some areas of the business require you to have Security Check (SC) clearance. The clearance you need is confirmed when you re offered the role.

If you re invited to interview, you re asked to complete a character enquiry form and nationality and immigration questionnaire.

If you re an internal member of staff, you won t need to do a DBS check as you already hold this clearance.

Reserve list

If you re recommended by the selection panel but not appointed to this current vacancy, you re placed on a reserve list for 12 months in case any further vacancies arise. It s not guaranteed that you will be offered a position within this time.

Excess fares

Excess fares don t apply. You re responsible for paying your travel costs to your chosen work location.

Fraud check

The Crown Prosecution Service provides a Fair Processing Notice to all new applicants after they ve been successful at interview. These candidates are informed that, as one aspect of pre-employment screening, their personal details name, National Insurance number and date of birth are checked against the Insiders Threat Database. We won’t employ anyone included on the database unless they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances.

Current civil servants

This opportunity is a Civil Service Executive Officer equivalent grade. If you re a current civil servant at a higher grade, you join as an Executive Officer. If your current pay is higher than the maximum salary advertised, you join on the maximum range and won’t maintain your higher pay.

CPS has fixed rates for its Executive Officer grade A Developing Rate (the starting salary) and a single Spot Rate (the annual rate and the maximum salary for the job). Applicants will typically join CPS on the Developing Rate.

Note that your salary may be adjusted where there is a change in geographical pay location on joining the programme. This may include an adjustment for any existing allowances you are in receipt of as there is no guarantee these can be retained. You should therefore make enquiries about the impact on your salary before applying for or accepting a place on the programme.

Civil Service Commission

If you re dissatisfied with the recruitment process and wish to make a complaint, please contact strategic.resourcing@cps.gov.uk with your concerns.

If you remain dissatisfied and wish to make a further complaint, you can do that through the Civil Service Commission complaints page.

Here are our Civil Service Commissioners recruitment principles.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

• a demonstrable interest in criminal prosecution and public service

• demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the work of the Crown Prosecution Service and our role in the wider criminal justice system

• a strong focus on continuous learning and the ability to apply knowledge of criminal law gained from study and experience

• commitment to a career as a lawyer practising criminal law in the Crown Prosecution Service, Undergraduate degree

You must hold a minimum of a 2:2 university undergraduate degree. This doesn t need to be in law, we consider equivalent undergraduate degrees.

If you have an, undergraduate degree at a minimum of a 2:2 in a subject other than law, you must have completed one of the following conversion courses:

Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL)

Common Professional Examination (CPE), This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Ability, Experience and Technical skills.

Alongside your salary of £29,620, Crown Prosecution Service contributes £8,580 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Name : Early Careers

• Email : Earlycareers@cps.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : Earlycareers@cps.gov.uk