Consular Officer

Job summary

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office pursues our national interests and projects the UK’s role in the world. We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK’s security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners. We employ more than 17,000 staff in 179 countries and territories, across our diplomatic and development offices worldwide, which consists of 282 officially designated Posts. Our UK-based staff work in King Charles Street, London, Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and Hanslope Park in Milton Keynes.

Job description

The FCDO’s Consular Services Department provides British people with first class 24/7 consular services. The Consular Contact Centre (CCC) team is split between two locations: one in Abercrombie House, East Kilbride, and one in Malaga, Spain.

Together, we are the first point of contact for all our global consular customers, providing advice and support by phone and to written enquiries and digital services.

Roles and Responsibilities

The successful candidates will be responsible for:

• Customer Contact - including receiving calls and written enquiries, responding accordingly, and recording actions taken. You will deal with some distressed British nationals, as well as some difficult customers and those wishing to register complaints. In addition, there will be recording of MPs’ enquiries, providing signposting to other government departments and authorities, logging cases on our database and passing enquiries to Embassies/High Commissions around the global network, according to consular assistance guidance. You will be leading on all aspects of first contact, with a focus on customer service and consular assistance for British nationals.
• Resource Management - including call monitoring, and written enquiries. You will meet team and personal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), to ensure the best possible customer service is always maintained. You should offer flexibility to assist with staff absences, assist with arrangements after an Embassy or Consulate closes, technical failures, crises and requests for staff language skills. You will respond to different channels of customer contact to ensure the best possible customer service and prepare and monitor data in relation to all KPIs.
• Customer Knowledge Management - including assisting the Team with enquiry data received, ensuring that all data is recorded accurately and anomalies are reported for action. You will be a key part of our customer knowledge management and quality control initiatives, helping to collate accurate feedback on what our customers are saying and helping to test the quality of our service.
• Stakeholder Management – responsibility, with colleagues, for ensuring core scripts and guidance are consistent with FCDO policy and service in line with Service Level Agreements. You will ensure team contact information is accurate and up to date. You will contribute to the continual development of our scripts and essential tools, to ensure handlers are able to provide essential information for over 100 countries and representing the CCC to key stakeholders and other parts of the FCDO, particularly in times of crisis and out of hours.

Because of the 24/7/365 nature of our work, you will need to work unsociable hours, including night shift, weekends, and public holidays. After completion of training, there will be a requirement to work from home for these unsociable hours shifts, including night shifts. It is important that you can freely work from home, including through the night, without disturbing or being interrupted by family or other people you may share your home with. NB: Please note that most shifts will be in normal office hours and this is primarily an office-based role. 

The FCDO also operates an agile workforce. To facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time as we may reasonably require.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Ability to work unsociable hours, including nightshift and weekend working.
• Ability to deliver excellent customer communication and service with fluency in written and spoken English.
• Ability to work at pace and under pressure, with empathy and professionalism.
• Able to use a range of MS Office applications, a cloud-based telephony solution and comfortable working with technology.
• Good geographical knowledge.
• Ability to remain calm, professional and empathetic when responding to challenging or sensitive situations.

You must be a British Citizen at the time of application and, if invited to interview, you will need to bring proof of identity (British Passport/Driving Licence etc.) with you .

This role requires you to attain Developed Vetting (DV) security clearance.

For more information about this process, click here . Attaining DV will require you to have been resident in the UK for five of the last ten years. At least one year of this must have been a consecutive twelve-month period. Serving overseas with HM Forces, in some other official capacity as a representative of His Majesty’s Government or having lived overseas as a result of your parents’ or partner’s Government employment counts as UK residency for the purposes of security clearances.

It is essential in your application that you provide evidence and proven examples in each of the following Minimum Criteria, the Behaviours and the Technical question as far as you are able to do so. These responses will be further developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £29,500, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes

£8,546 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• A Civil Service Pension.
• 25 days Annual Leave per annum.
• 9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.
• Learning and Development tailored to your role.

See the attached candidate pack.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Ability and Experience.

This vacancy uses the Success Profiles Framework and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Ability.

Please see the ‘Hints and Tips’ that are provided for your information about how to prepare Behaviour examples at the Application and/or Interview stage.

Application Stage

You will be required to complete a short online application form. You will then be invited to complete a Civil Service Verbal Test and a Civil Service Numerical Test. If you successfully pass these tests, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the application which will comprise of the following: 

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). CVs will be assessed against the Essential Criteria outlined in the Person Specification section above.
• A Personal Statement of 500 words explaining how you consider your skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with specific reference to the Essential Criteria. These responses will be explored further during the interview process for shortlisted candidates.

The Behaviour you will be assessed on at the application stage are as follows:

• Communicating & Influencing

Please ensure that you allow sufficient time to complete the whole application process before the closing deadline.

IMPORTANT: If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme and require Reasonable Adjustments in order to complete your application/online tests, please ensure Government Recruitment Service (GRS) are aware of this on the date of application and certainly by the closing date.

In the event of a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift by a lead criterion. For this campaign we will be prioritising Communicating & Influencing . Only candidates who meet the minimum standard in this Behaviour will have the rest of their application fully assessed.

Interview Stage

At the start of your interview, you will be asked a non-assessed warm-up question about your motivation for applying for the role.

The Behaviours you will be assessed on during the interview are as follows:

• Communicating & Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Please note that the FCDO carries out name-blind (anonymised) recruitment to help build a more diverse and inclusive workforce. The personal information on your Application form and/or CV will be concealed during the sifting phase, and only the names of those who are being invited for Interviews will be made known to the Panel.

The FCDO has appointed the Government Recruitment Service to manage th e process.

Please see the timetable below for indicative dates:

• Closing date for completed applications
• 23:55 on Monday 28th September 2026
• Online Testing
• Between Thursday 27th August and Monday 28th September 2026
• Panel Interview
• Week commencing Monday 2nd November 2026

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to attend a panel interview (in person) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in East Kilbride. There may be the option to conduct the interview by Microsoft Teams for overseas candidates. If this is preferred, you must make this clear at the application stage.

There may be other opportunities in the future. Candidates who meet the required level at interview, will be kept on a Reserve List for 12 months. Should this, or another substantially similar role arise within this period, we may fill it with a Reserve candidate from this campaign. There is no guarantee that Reserves will be offered a role. If you are conditionally offered, and accept, a role your name will be removed from any other FCDO Reserve Lists.

Please note that the FCDO will not reimburse any travel costs or expenses incurred as part of the selection process.

Current FCDO staff members are advised that this is an external campaign and, as such, you will be required to go through the same process as all other candidates.

If you have any questions please email: fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

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

If you have any questions please email: fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustment

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 Government Recruitment Service via fcdorecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might ne