Job Title: Principal Scrutiny Officer
Region: Scotland
Vicinity: Edinburgh
Job Category: Permanent
Salary: £62,111
Salary Description: New entrants are expected to start on the minimum pay band
Posted: 13/04/2026
Start Date: confirmed following successful pre-employment checks which can take several weeks
Job Ref: 457250
Closing Date: 04/05/2026
About us
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is an independent non-ministerial office, accountable to the Scottish Parliament and overseen by a non-executive board. It is part of the Scottish Administration and its employees are civil servants. Full details are available on the ESS website.
ESS' role is expanding to take on two new roles:
- scrutinising the Scottish Government's delivery against the new statutory biodiversity and nature restoration targets which will be set under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026
- scrutinising local authorities' reporting against climate change duties as set out in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009
To deliver these duties and to manage this significant organisational change, ESS will be recruiting new posts over the next twelve months to establish a new team within the organisation to lead the development of work to deliver these two new roles.
Job description
We are recruiting for two team leader roles within our newly created New Scrutiny Duties Development Department:
- Principal Scrutiny Officer (Climate Change Reporting)
- Principal Scrutiny Officer (Nature Recovery)
Together, working to the Head of New Scrutiny Duties Development, these post holders will play a crucial part in how we will plan, prioritise and deliver our new areas of work:
- scrutinising local authorities' reporting against climate change duties as set out in the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009
- scrutinising the Scottish Government's delivery against the new statutory biodiversity and nature restoration targets which will be set under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2026
The Principal Scrutiny Officer (Climate Change Reporting) will lead the development of processes to enable ESS to scrutinise local authorities' reporting against climate change duties. This will include building and supporting a new team of five who will carry out this work and engaging with ESS' wider stakeholders.
The Principal Scrutiny Officer (Nature Recovery) will lead the establishment of the processes required to scrutinise the Scottish Government's delivery against the new statutory biodiversity and nature restoration targets. This will include building and supporting a new team of four (including staff with scientific, policy and data expertise) who will carry out this work and engaging with ESS' wider stakeholders.
Application
Further information on the job role and interview process can be found here.
Applications should be submitted through Civil Service Jobs: Principal Scrutiny Officer – Civil Service Jobs – GOV.UK
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