Human Resources

COPFS
EXTERNAL APPLICATION FORM
GUIDANCE NOTES

Please read this guidance document fully before beginning to complete the
application.

Conditions

Only fully completed applications, including a fully completed Equal Opportunities

Monitoring Form, will be considered.

If you are successful at interview, a complete enquiry of your eligibility to work in the
UK, Health Check and Disclosure Scotland checks will be conducted. If you are
uncertain about any aspect of your eligibility, please contact us.

A candidate found to have given false information or wilfully to have suppressed any
material fact will be liable to either disqualification or, if appointed, to dismissal.

Submission Requirements

This application form along with the equal opportunities monitoring form must be
completed and submitted in full before it can be considered. Completed
applications must arrive no later than 5pm on the closing date. Late
applications will not normally be accepted.

E-mailed applications are preferred in Microsoft Word format. If you are not
able to email your application form, handwritten forms should be completed in
black ink.

You must ensure that you receive an acknowledgement from us (please note this
may be an automated acknowledgement). If you do not receive acknowledgement
within 48 hours please contact the HR Resource Team.

If you have any difficulties in completing this application form, or if you require it in an
alternative format (e.g. large print or audio tape), please contact COPFS Resource
Team by emailing recruitment@copfs.gsi.gov.uk

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COMPLETING THE FORM

Please use the F11 key to navigate through the application form.

Part A

Relates to personal information about you. Please note that the selection panel will
not have access to the information provided in sections 6-10.

Part B

Concerns the information regarding skills, qualifications and experience which we

require in order to sift your application against the criteria stated. It also gives you the
opportunity to highlight any examples of where you have used the particular skills,
knowledge and competencies requested.

Before you complete this part of your application please ensure you have
referred to the Competency framework to ensure examples demonstrate the
competence to the required level.

The sift panel may decide to invite to interview only those applicants who appear to
them, from the information available, to be the most suitable in terms of the skills,
qualifications and experience asked for. It is therefore essential that you give full
details in each of the following sections, and provide evidence of how you meet the
particular experience and qualities sought, providing specific examples against the
key competencies detailed in the advert and candidates guide.

It is not appropriate simply to list the various posts that you have held. The sift panel
cannot make assumptions as to the skills and experience you have gained from the
title of previous posts held.

It is strongly recommended that you refer to the Candidates Guide and

Competence Framework prior to completing this application for full guidance.

Please note that if all sections are not completed in full, we will be unable to proceed
with your application. (Supplementary material such as CVs or testimonials will not
be considered).

It is your responsibility to demonstrate clearly on your application form how

you satisfy the published criteria.

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Part C

Placement preference should you be successful in your application

As advised within the Application Pack, trainee placements within first and second
year will be located throughout Scotland.

Please read the below carefully.

Please use the table to indicate whether or not you would be willing to work from
each location noted and follow the below guidance;

1. If you would be willing to work in any location please select ’Yes’ in the box ‘I
am willing to work in any location’

If you are not willing/ able to work in any location please select ‘No’ and then;

2. Please rank the locations where you would be willing to work in order of
preference.

3. Where you are not willing/ unable to work in some locations you must state
the reason for this.

All boxes must be completed. Please use the F11 key to navigate through the form.
To check a box, please double click on the box and under ‘default value’, click on
‘checked’

Whilst efforts will be made to meet with your preferences, you should note that
there is no guarantee that you will be offered a placement which meets with
your preferences.

Part D

Contains the declaration regarding the accuracy of the information you provide. Any
candidate found to have given false information or wilfully to have suppressed any
material fact will be liable to either disqualification or, if appointed, to dismissal.

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Annex 1 Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form

All candidates must complete this form. Data from it will be used to enable the
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to review and report on the
effectiveness of its equal opportunities policies. This will not form part of the
selection for the post and will be removed from your application before being passed
to the assessment board.

Please note that all sections of your Application form, including the Equal
Opportunities Monitoring Form will form part of your personal record should you
successfully obtain employment with COPFS.

This form must be completed and returned along with your application form.
However, where you would prefer not to answer a particular question, you can tick
the relevant box in order to indicate this. The data collected in this form will be used
to enable the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to review and
report on the effectiveness of its equal opportunities policies. If you successfully
gain employment with COPFS then this will form part of your personnel file.

The information provided on this form will be treated in the strictest confidence and
will be held and used in accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection
Act by COPFS Humans Resources.

If you have any difficulties in completing this form, or if you require it in an alternative
format (e.g. large print or audio tape), please contact COPFS Recruitment Team
(Please see the Note for Applicants for details).

Introduction

COPFS is committed to promoting equality of opportunity and treatment and to

eliminating unfair discrimination in its employment practices. It will seek to ensure
that all job applicants and employees are treated fairly, with respect and without bias
at all times.

No job applicant or employee will receive less favourable treatment than others
because of her / his / or their gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital or
family status, part-time status (unless such treatment is objectively justified), racial
group (includes colour, race, nationality, national or ethnic origin), religion, disability
(unless such treatment is objectively justified), age (subject to the operation of a
retirement age policy) or trade union membership/non-membership/activities.

What happens to the information you provide on this form

This monitoring form will be kept separate from your application form when it arrives
to the COPFS Recruitment Team and the information you have provided on it will be
extracted and placed into our confidential monitoring database.
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If you have a disability, we ask you to tell us about any adjustments that you would
wish to be made in light of your disability. Sometimes, in order to make such
adjustments, we may need to pass this information onto others (for example, the
selection panel, line managers).

If, at any stage, we must pass information about such adjustments onto other people
in order to meet your needs, we will do this sensitively and by passing on as little
information as possible.

If you are successful in your application, on commencement of your employment the

information contained in the monitoring form will be used to populate our HR
systems and form part of your personal record.

As a Government Department we are legally required to provide and publish

information about our employees in relation to race. In addition to this legal
requirement, COPFS follows best practice requirements to monitor and collect
information about our employees in relation to age, disability, gender, religion or
belief and sexual orientation. This allows us to assess whether our staff is truly
representative of the public that we serve and also to compare against other
government departments and private sector organisations. HR will also use the
information you provide to tell us about what’s happening in the organisation and to
make sure we are being fair in the way we implement our policies and that we are
making the most of the talent we have in our organisation.

How have the questions in this form been drafted and selected?

This form asks questions relating to those grounds on which the law currently
prohibits discrimination, and those grounds on which the law will prohibit
discrimination in the near future.

All equal opportunities monitoring forms ask people to put themselves in categories.
This can be problematic because sometimes not everyone will agree on which
categories should be used in a form like this. It is also important that people are not
compelled to disclose information which they would prefer to keep private. In
designing this monitoring form, we have tried to take all of these issues into account
as far as possible.

For each question on this form, you should only tick one box.

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External Application Guidance – v1 January 2016