Open Prisons UK 2026: Category D List and Officer Pay

In shortAn open prison has minimal physical security and holds people assessed as low risk; adult men in open conditions are Category D.

The official definition comes from the HMPPS Security Categorisation Policy Framework, re-issued on 28 April 2025. It separates closed prisons, which have a secure perimeter and internal security, from open prisons, which have a minimal perimeter and minimal physical security.

Category D

Adult men held in open conditions: people assessed as low risk, or whose earlier risk factors are now manageable in low security.

Women and young offenders

Not given the A to D letters in the same way. The framework does not sub-divide closed conditions for them into Category B or C; they are held in either "closed" or "open" conditions. That is why the two women's open prisons are described as open rather than Category D.

Functional group (the `category` on this site)

HMPPS's functional group from the 2025/26 performance ratings (for example Open, Reception, Category C Trainer). It describes what a prison is for, not the legal security category of each person in it. For open prisons the two line up closely, but read it as a role label.

In shortSince 28 April 2025, open-conditions eligibility moved from 3 to 5 years remaining with a mandatory 7-day review before a move; the framework does not set officer pay or staffing.

The framework was updated on 28 April 2025. The GOV.UK publication page records the update date; the substantive changes relevant here come from the research summary compiled for this site on 3 October 2026. The full wording sits in the policy PDF, which you should read before relying on a detail.

In practice that matters for anyone thinking about the job because it shapes who is in an open prison:

• Eligibility for open conditions changed from 3 to 5 years remaining to serve.
• A mandatory 7-day review now precedes a move to open conditions.
• A longer permitted time widens the pool of people who can be considered for open conditions, while the review adds a check before the move.
• The framework does not promise either more or fewer prisoners at any named site, and I have not found a published figure that attributes population changes at a specific open prison to the April 2025 update.
• It sets categorisation and allocation rules; it does not set officer pay, contract hours or staffing levels. Those come from the Prison Service Pay Review Body and HMPPS staffing targets, covered further down.

In shortThere are 15 open prisons in England and Wales (13 men's, 2 women's) plus Castle Huntly in Scotland; the pay columns apply only to HMPPS Band 3 officers.

HMPPS puts 13 men's establishments in the Open functional group. Two women's prisons, Askham Grange and East Sutton Park, are also open. Scotland's only open prison is Castle Huntly. The table below is built from the site's prison dataset, with capacity and population taken from the HMPPS monthly bulletin dated 24 August 2026.

Three entries are shared with other prisons in the official tables. Where the table shows a combined number, treat it as the pair, not the open site alone.

Operational capacity

The number a prison can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the planned regime. It is not the same as the older "certified normal accommodation" figure.

• Spring Hill is jointly managed with Grendon on the same site, so HMPPS publishes one combined figure.
• Prescoed is jointly managed with Usk, again with one combined figure.
• Hollesley Bay was merged with Warren Hill into one "Hollesley" unit for HR reporting from June 2026.

In shortThe 13 men's open prisons are spread across England and Wales, so your commute matters more than the label.

Geography matters more for open prisons than the label suggests. Many sit in rural or semi-rural locations. An officer rota on a 37, 39 or 41 hour contract is the same national structure everywhere, but a longer drive eats into the hours you actually have.

South East

HMP Ford, HMP Spring Hill and HMP Standford Hill; the last of these is one of three prisons that form the Sheppey Cluster in Kent with Elmley and Swaleside.

North West

HMP Haverigg, HMP Kirkham and HMP & YOI Thorn Cross.

North East

HMP Kirklevington Grange, which GOV.UK describes as an open prison for men resettling in the north-east of England.

Elsewhere

HMP & YOI Hatfield near Doncaster (split into Hatfield Main and Hatfield Lakes per GOV.UK; the functional-group list refers to Hatfield (Lakes) as the open site); HMP & YOI Hollesley Bay in Suffolk; HMP North Sea Camp in Lincolnshire; HMP Sudbury near Ashbourne in Derbyshire; HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire; and HMP & YOI Prescoed in South Wales.

In shortAskham Grange and East Sutton Park are open women's prisons rated Outstanding; Castle Huntly is Scotland's only open prison and is not compared directly with HMPPS figures.

• Askham Grange128Operational capacity; population 85 on 24 August 2026
• East Sutton Park100Operational capacity; population 76 on 24 August 2026
• Castle Huntly (SPS)184Design capacity on the SPS page (undated)

Askham Grange is an open prison and young offender institution in Askham Richard near York for women aged 18 and over; East Sutton Park is an open prison and YOI in Maidstone, Kent, also for women aged 18 and over (GOV.UK establishment pages). Both were rated Outstanding in the 2025/26 ratings.

Both are in the HMPPS Women's Estate region and both are national pay zone with no listed market supplement. The wider picture for women's prisons, including what the closed estate looks like, is in the guide to women's prisons in the UK.

Castle Huntly is Scotland's only open prison, according to the SPS prisons list and the dataset. The SPS page gives a design capacity of 184, but SPS publishes no operational capacity or inspection figure on the establishment page, so this guide does not compare it directly with the HMPPS numbers.

In shortThe HMPPS Annual Digest records 78 absconds and 14 escapes across the estate in 2025-26; no verified per-prison breakdown exists.

• Absconds78Up 37% (April 2025 to March 2026)
• Escapes1412 the previous year, with 4 still at large after 30 days
• Temporary release failures925Estate-wide count

The headline numbers come from the HMPPS Annual Digest for April 2025 to March 2026, published on 30 July 2026. These are estate-wide counts for England and Wales, and the Digest will not be published from 2026-27, with the data moving to other publications.

Be careful about what you infer. The figures I have verified are totals; I have not found a published, dated per-prison breakdown of absconds that I can reproduce, and per-prison counts in related safety tables are often suppressed where numbers are small.

• The word "abscond" has a specific meaning in HMPPS statistics. Read the definition in the Digest itself before comparing it with media coverage or with another country's data.
• A rise of 37% on a small base is a real signal but also a volatile one.
• The data does not tell you what absconds mean for an individual officer's day. That depends on the establishment's roll check routine, staffing and the people held, none of which I can source.

In shortThere is no open-prison pay band: Band 3 pay depends on pay zone, contract hours and any supplement, and only Spring Hill and Standford Hill carry one (£1,500 a year).

• National, pay point 1£34,92837 hour contract, including 20% unsocial hours
• National, pay point 2£36,15037 hour contract, including 20% unsocial hours
• National, pay point 3£36,77837 hour contract, including 20% unsocial hours
• Market supplement£1,500Spring Hill and Standford Hill; non-pensionable

There is no "open prison" pay band. A Band 3 prison officer in England and Wales is paid on the same Fair and Sustainable structure wherever they work, adjusted only for pay zone and any local market supplement.

On the national zone and the 37 hour contract the 2026/27 figure including the 20% unsocial hours allowance is £34,928, £36,150 or £36,778, depending on pay point.

Longer contract hours pay more; the full table is in the prison officer pay bands guide.

Two open prisons carry a market supplement:

• HMP Spring Hill (listed with Grendon) and HMP Standford Hill are listed by HMPPS Prison and Probation Jobs at £1,500 a year.
• The supplement applies to Band 3 officers on Fair and Sustainable terms, is non-pensionable, and is paid in 12 monthly instalments.
• HMPPS says the supplement status will be kept until at least March 2027.
• From 1 April 2026 the red supplements at Grendon, Standford Hill and Huntercombe are being gradually eroded, in steps of about £500 a year aligned to the pay award.

In shortSeveral open prisons are at or close to officer target, but staffing is a snapshot, not a verdict.

• Band 3 to 5 officers in post22,001 FTE30 June 2026; down 701 on a year earlier
• Leaving rate8.9%12 months to 30 June 2026
• Training routeAbout nine to ten weeks10-day induction plus 7-week foundation course, then probation

HMPPS publishes officer staffing against target by prison in an annex to the workforce statistics.

At 30 June 2026 (hours-adjusted), several open prisons were at or close to target: HMP Ford 64 vs 65 (on target), HMP Haverigg 79 vs 78 (on target) and HMP Leyhill 66 vs 65 (+1), in Band 3 to 5 FTE.

Larger gaps appear elsewhere, for example HMP Sudbury 79 vs 88 (-9) and HMP Standford Hill 62 vs 69 (-7). Spring Hill is reported jointly with Grendon, and Prescoed jointly with Usk.

Staffing is a snapshot, not a verdict. A prison at target can still be busy and a prison below target can run safely; the figure is simply the clearest published sign of how full the officer establishment is.

In shortOpen prisons sit inside a tight national capacity picture, and building aimed at open sites should be treated as a plan until you check the prison's page.

• Population, England and Wales87,499Weekly bulletin, 28 September 2026
• Useable operational capacity89,055Same bulletin
• Headroom1,556Population against useable operational capacity

Open prisons sit inside the wider capacity story. The Government describes adult male prisons as at 98% capacity in a 1 October 2026 press release; that is a Government claim rather than a bulletin figure.

Some building is aimed at open sites:

• A December 2025 Ministry of Justice announcement listed Rapid Deployment Cells at Wayland, Haverigg, The Mount and Leyhill, due summer 2026.
• A 14 September 2026 release records 152 Rapid Deployment Cell places under construction at Kirklevington Grange, with groundbreaking on 10 September 2026.
• I have not checked whether the summer 2026 cells have opened, so treat those as plans and check the prison's page.

In shortChoose by commute, inspection report and honest pay maths, then apply only through the official HMPPS recruitment site.

Start with the people and the place. Decide how far you can realistically travel, because most open prisons are not in large towns.

Then look at the prison's own page for its latest inspectorate report and, where it exists, a dedicated recruitment page; about 40 prisons have one under the HMPPS "working in some of our prisons" section, and the others use the general officer page.

10 of the 13 men's open prisons were rated Outstanding in 2025/26 and the rest Good, but the publication warns that framework changes limit year-on-year comparison. Total pay depends on contract hours, pay zone and any supplement, not on whether a prison is open.

1. Shortlist two or three open prisons using the prison finder and the directory.
2. Read each prison's latest HMIP report and note its performance rating.
3. Work out your commute and shift pattern, then your pay for 37, 39 or 41 hours.
4. Check for a market supplement and remember it is non-pensionable and can be withdrawn.
5. Apply on the official HMPPS recruitment site and prepare for the assessment centre.