FOI Centre Service Advisor

As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is already a special place to work. We're an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history. But it's where we go next that makes things really interesting.

In our strategic vision:
Archives for Everyone,
we set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive - a different kind of cultural and heritage institution: Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won't become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring.

That's where you come in. Because we can't do this without you.

Job Overview
Salary: £29,258 per annum

Contract type: Permanent

Band: D / EO

Closing date: Thursday 1st January 2026 at midnight

This role supports The National Archives' Freedom of Information (FOI) request service, which is administered by the FOI Centre. To ensure we meet tight statutory targets, the FOI Centre needs to run an efficient and professional customer service, which requires excellent attention to detail and customer service skills for responding to the needs of our customers and stakeholders.

The FOI Centre is responsible for overseeing FOI activity across The National Archives (TNA) and for handling FOI requests for access to information contained within closed archival records and our own corporate (business) information.

Reporting to an FOI Manager, this role will assist the Centre in managing and coordinating FOI requests across TNA, by monitoring the case management system, the triage and entry of requests, and customer correspondence to ensure the FOI requests being processed are accurate and up to date. The Service Advisor will assist case officers in ensuring all requested information is managed properly, updating requesters as required.

A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.

Application Process

• Interview: Interviews will be held on-site during the week commencing 19th January
• Personal Statement: We ask all applicants to submit work history details and a personal statement, not exceeding 1200 words

Selection for interview will be based on the 'essential' requirements in the job description below so please ensure that your statement demonstrates in detail how you meet these requirements.

In The Event Of a High Volume Of Applications We Will Conduct An Initial Sift Based On The Following Four Essential Criteria

• Demonstrate the ability to carry out research into records, assimilate lots of information, analyse textual content, and summarise findings clearly and concisely.
• Demonstrate the ability to make decisions, using sound judgement, escalating issues as required.
• Commitment to providing a professional service to the public and/or to other government departments.
• Ability to work to deadlines, work well under pressure, and prioritise/balance demanding workloads.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please visit the Civil Service Careers website where you can find further information on the use of AI in the application guidance section.

SC clearance/willingness to obtain SC clearance will be required for this role. This requires candidates to have been resident in the UK for at least the past three years. Please do not apply if you have been resident in the UK for less than three years as your application will be rejected.

Sponsorship
We are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.

Job Description
Role and Responsibilities

Assist In Management And Coordination Of All FOI Requests

• Log all new cases received into the FOI Centre within our tracking system. As part of this and with experience, highlight any complex cases or cases that may need more immediate attention
• To complete (after training) an initial triage of FOI cases to identify any that require standard responses and send appropriate responses to enquirers accordingly
• Undertake 'relevancy checks' into certain requested series of records, to ensure that a request is relevant to a cited record and/or whether it is possible for the FOI Centre to fully and accurately respond to a request.
• To identify all cases due for a response daily and liaise with case officers to establish what response is required
• Monitor all incoming e-mail inboxes/post to the FOI Centre – identifying FOI requests for logging, answering straight forward enquiries and circulating e-mails for further attention
• Monitor corporate requests received and identify any which may require consultation with other government departments, liaising with relevant stakeholders if appropriate
• Alert Head of Centre to any problems identified with regard to the processing of requests so that remedial action may be taken and long-term solutions implemented
• Develop expert user knowledge of TNA's tracking system to assist with advising on the service requests
• Assist with preparation of figures for monitoring reporting purposes for Head of FOI Centre. Ensure these are accurate and timely
• Develop own knowledge of the FOI Act and FOI Casework at TNA, with a view to assisting case officers with a small amount of FOI casework and redaction work on an ad hoc basis if opportunities arise

Assist In Handling Of Complaints Regarding Freedom Of Information

• Carry out initial investigation into FOI casework records. Prepare case files/folders, adding in papers and summaries of steps taken for the FOI Managers. For IR/ICO/Tribunal cases, including links to the previous case folders
• Locate and prepare documents to be used in bundles presented to Information Commissioners Office/Information Tribunal

Assist with managing the publication of information requests to TNA's website:

• Establish a list of corporate FOI responses sent each month
• Identify if templates have been prepared by FOI case handlers – prepare templates if they haven't been completed, liaising with case handlers as necessary
• Use WordPress for updating TNA's website/FAQs and any editorial changes and liaise with the internal web team to ensure timely publication

Assisting with FOI Centre administration and the provision of training:

• Distributing FOI training information to TNA new starters (and maintaining spreadsheet)
• Liaise with the FOI Managers to ensure cover for the FOI Centre at internal Information Management training sessions (oversee/manage the rota)
• To assist the Centre in the organisation of training, team meetings and hosting visitors on site when required
• Chairing FOI Centre Team meetings, compiling meeting agendas and minutes as required
• Providing administrative support for the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives' FOI Panel consultations
• Providing administrative support for TNA's Reclosure cases and Reclosure Panels when necessary
• Raising Purchase Orders as and when required by the Head of the FOI Centre

Working Conditions

• Normal office environment
• Display Screen Equipment user
• Moving items up to 10kg in weight
• Will come into contact with distressing material: The work of the FOI Centre involves the processing of FOI requests for access to information contained within closed archival records which can sometimes be upsetting or distressing in nature. Although the primary roles and responsibilities of this post do not directly involve reviewing these records, the administration of FOI requests may expose the job holder to detailed descriptions of file contents in written and verbal communications

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

• Demonstrate the ability to carry out research into records, assimilate lots of information, analyse textual content, and summarise findings clearly and concisely.
• High standard of communication, both written and verbal.
• Confident and able to negotiate at a senior level across government departments.
• Good team-working skills and flexibility in approach to work, to meet targets.
• Demonstrate the ability to make decisions, using sound judgement, escalating issues as required.
• Commitment to providing a professional service to the public and/or to other government departments.
• Team player able to work on own initiative under pressure.
• Ability to work to deadlines, work well under pressure, and prioritise/balance demanding workloads.

Desirable Criteria

• Knowledge of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and related legislation.
• High level of IT literacy, including strong knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word, and SharePoint.
• Use of case management/tracking systems.
• Project management experience.

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 and the Civil Service

D&I Strategy.

Benefits
Generous benefits package, including pension, sports and social club facilities, onsite gym, discounted rates at our on-site cafe and opportunities for training and development. Annual leave entitlement of 22 days per calendar year (rising to 25 after the first year, and incrementally to 30 days after six years) and 10½ days public and privilege holidays per annum.

Any move to The National Archives from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at  (opens in new window)

Reasonable adjustments
If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact The National Archives via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the 'Reasonable Adjustments' section 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

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

Security
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

People working with government assets must complete basic personnel security standard checks (opens in 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

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code  (opens in 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 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.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. (opens in new window)

Contact Point For Applicants

• Name: The National Archives Recruitment Team
• Email:

Further information
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact The National Archives via email: If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission at (opens in new window)