Working for Planning Inspectorate
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-31)


Introduction

In the Planning Inspectorate, we know that our people are key to delivering our critical mission to maintain a fair planning system, support significant infrastructure development and help communities shape where they live.

The Planning Inspectorate is a great place to work, offering a unique employee experience that includes:
- Delivering some of the government’s highest priority work.
- Making sure that development is carefully considered, the right homes are constructed in the right places, and green spaces are protected.
- Influencing the preservation and future development of our built and natural environment for generations to come.
We want to ensure that every single person that works for us feels appreciated, supported and fairly rewarded. The details below sets out many of the excellent and competitive benefits we offer.

Social Impact

Our built environment, natural environment and how our communities in England and Wales develop over time has been informed by the decisions made in the Planning Sector for over 100 years. Your work will shape our future.

Through our environmental plan we aim to leave the environment in a better condition for future generations.

We believe fair planning makes great places, so the work that you do will have an impact on the society in which you live.

Making use of our paid volunteering arrangements, our colleagues often take part in community-focused volunteering; ensuring a positive social impact is made through a range of channels. Recent events have included sorting donations at a food bank, a beach clean-up, and a community centre refresh.

Our partnership with the Charities Aid Foundation gives you the opportunity to support the charities you’re passionate about in a cost-effective way. You can choose to have your charity donations taken from your pay before income tax is deducted, allowing your donation to go further while costing you less.

Employee Experience

Quotes from some of our employees:

The people are friendly and supportive. I enjoy the flexibility of being able to work from home but also working in a really nice office working collaboratively.

Project Officer 2025

Good culture, clear mission, work that feels like it’s beneficial to the country

Glassdoor 2025

The job is both challenging, rewarding, and never dull, with a great variety of interesting casework and places to visit.

Planning Inspector 2025

It’s a very rewarding job that offers the flexibility I need to fit work around family life.

Planning Inspector 2025

An engaging and supportive place with opportunities to develop valuable skills, obtain real-world experience, and contribute to meaningful projects.

Apprentice 2025

Excellent work environment, genuinely the best place I’ve ever worked. Flexible working, hybrid/ remote, consistent development, supportive colleagues.

Glassdoor 2024

Financial

Competitive pay with ranges that are typically higher than most Civil Service salaries.

Access to two market-leading pension schemes, helping you to save for the future. Our defined benefit Alpha pension is conservatively valued at 29% of your salary. Most companies will only offer one worth 6-12%.

Life assurance. If the unthinkable should happen and you die, we will provide for your chosen beneficiaries with a generous lump sum payment, and a dependant’s pension subject to pension scheme. (http://www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/)

A reward scheme to recognise your great work and/or demonstration of our values.

Options to ease your financial burden, including interest-free loans to spread the cost of season tickets, a new bicycle, or rental deposit.

A discount scheme providing access to hundreds of discounted offers to help you make significant savings from a range of shops and brands (https://www.edenred.uk.com/Scripts/Secure/Login/Login.aspx?so_SID=).

A travel and subsistence offer which means that you are never out of pocket when travelling from your work base.

Personal and Professional Growth

We believe that the ongoing development of people is crucial to creating a skilled, professional and high performing organisation. Our commitment is embedded in our approach to talent, learning and development, which empowers people to own their development and career path, supported by line managers.

Our Capability Framework maps how colleagues can grow their capabilities with us; providing a clear guide to support personal and professional development.

We promote and support our colleagues to build professional networks, including access to Civil Service development programmes such as Beyond Boundaries and the Future Leaders scheme (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-talent-management/civil-service-talent-management).

We offer online learning resources for continuing professional development on Civil Service Learning and our own Learning Management System.

We offer funding for subscriptions to professional associations to help our people develop their professional and wider skills.

We support and encourage apprenticeships across all professions and levels for new and existing employees as a route to ‘earn while you learn’.

All of our jobs are advertised on:
- the Civil Service Careers Hub (https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/departments/pins-hub/)
- the Civil Service Jobs website (https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/)
- the Public Appointments website (http://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/)
Flexible Working

We want you to enjoy a healthy work-life balance.

We offer a variety of flexible working arrangements so that your work fits in with your lifestyle. As well as a flexi-time scheme there are options to work part-time, part-year (including term-time only), job share, compressed week or fortnight, and partial retirement.

Our colleagues enjoy a hybrid working offer that works for us all. Teams are encouraged to develop local arrangements setting out the balance that is right between home and office working.

Family Friendly

We want you to be there for the people that matter.

Maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. Our enhanced scheme offers 100% pay for 26 weeks’, followed by statutory pay for a further 13 weeks’.

Our paternity leave offer means that new parents can spend precious moments with the family by taking up to two consecutive weeks off at 100% pay following a new arrival.

Our working parents can also take up to 18 weeks’ of unpaid leave before their child’s 18th birthday. Colleagues with children with a disability can take up to 26 weeks’ paid leave until the child’s 18th birthday

It’s not just parents that we support, our carers leave arrangements, ensures that people with caring responsibilities can take one-weeks’ unpaid leave every 12 months. This is in addition to the flexible working arrangements that we offer.

Health and Wellbeing

We want to support you to look after your wellbeing. We have a dedicated Health and Wellbeing Hub giving you access to tools, tips and techniques, enabling you to look after yourself.

We know how important it is for you to feel at your best. We offer employee wellbeing and occupational health services alongside funding regular eye tests and annual flu vaccinations.

Our colleagues can choose to join the Civil Service Sports and Leisure Club which provides access to free days out, and exclusive discounts on sports, fitness, retail and leisure (https://store.cssc.co.uk/member-benefits).

Our subscription to the world leading Headspace App, ensures colleagues have access to a suite of exercises for meditation, mindfulness, sleep, focus, and movement, designed to support mental and physical health.

The Employee Assistance Programme is one of our employee benefits to help you deal with personal and professional issues which could be affecting home or work life, health, and general wellbeing. Confidential support is available and, dependent on the nature of the issue, counselling or information services can be provided by fully-qualified professionals.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We care – about each other, our customers, our performance and our culture. Our simple charter “The PINS Way” sets out not what we do, but how we do things.

We want you to feel comfortable and empowered to thrive while being yourself at work. Colleagues shape our organisation through our People Survey, temperature checks, and all staff sessions.

Our ‘Wonderwall’ offers colleagues the chance to celebrate each other.

We are strengthening our offer as a modern and inclusive employer, brought to life through our:
- Employee networks – celebrating and supporting diversity in all its forms.
- Trade Unions – helping to ensure voices are heard and offering impartial guidance and support.
- Reverse mentoring – helping senior leaders to learn from colleagues with diverse lived experiences.
- Fun and informative events to broaden perspectives and raise awareness of peer challenges.
- Targeted leadership development programmes for under-represented groups.
Facilities

We provide portable, fast and modern IT kit, enabling seamless home working and team collaboration.

We offer world class office facilities right in the centre of Bristol, close to the public transport network and surrounded by shops, leisure options, and diverse places to eat and drink.

For our Inspector colleagues their home is their office. Alongside the office furniture that we provide, they have an open invite to our Bristol office to collaborate with wider teams.

There’s no need to BYOM (Bring Your Own Milk) when working from our office, with a full range of complimentary hot drinks to choose from.

As well as comprehensive news and information, our intranet hosts personal blogs from colleagues so you can share and learn about the experience of others.

A regular mix of in-person and online session with senior leaders offering insight into the decisions, challenges and opportunities we are experiencing.

Recruitment & Selection Privacy Notice

This statement provides information about how we process personal information for Individuals who have worked for or are looking to work for the Planning Inspectorate.

Recruitment & Selection Privacy Notice (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/planning-inspectorate-privacy-notices/recruitment-selection-privacy-notice)

PINS Personnel Record Retention Schedule

Disposal where a number is the deletion/destruction of the material XX years after its last modified date

Disposal ‘review’ is reviewed for either transfer to TNA, continued retention, or deletion/destruction