POA Explained: What the Prison Officers' Association Does

In shortThe POA is an independent trade union that does four practical things for a working officer, and it cannot organise industrial action in England and Wales.

On its own site the POA says it is the largest union in the United Kingdom representing uniformed prison grades and staff in secure forensic psychiatric care, and it traces its roots back more than 100 years.

It is not part of HMPPS, the Ministry of Justice or the Civil Service, and this website is not part of the POA.

If you are a serving officer you can be a POA member, but membership is a personal choice and the union is separate from your employer.

In shortMembership is wider than officer grades, the union's size claims differ between its own pages, and governors are represented by a different union.

• Size, main pageOver 35,000Public and private sectors
• Size, other pagesOver 30,000Prison, correctional and secure psychiatric workers
• HMPPS band 3 to 5 officers22,001 FTEAt 30 June 2026
• HMPPS band 25,661 FTEOperational support, 30 June 2026

The POA's join page says membership is open to employees in penal and secure establishments in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and Scotland. That is wider than the officer grades most readers have in mind.

The POA does not give a dated breakdown, so we cannot say how many of those are HMPPS officers. For context, the HMPPS figures are from workforce statistics, published 20 August 2026, and private-prison staff are not in that count.

In shortAnnual conference sets the rules, a National Executive Committee leads nationally, and your first contact is your local branch official.

At the national level, the PSPRB's 2026 report lists the POA team that gave oral evidence: Mark Fairhurst as National Chair, Steve Gillan as General Secretary, Dave Todd as Vice National Chair and Mick Pimblett as Deputy General Secretary.

Those titles are as recorded by the PSPRB for the evidence sessions in autumn 2025; we have not checked whether any office has changed since, so confirm names on the POA website if you need to write to someone.

The union's circulars, which are public, are the best way to see what the national leadership is saying at any time.

Conference

The POA's navigation refers to annual conference and Scottish conference. The Legal Advice Scheme handbook says its rules are the ones 'agreed at Annual Conference', so conference is the body that sets the rules.

National Executive Committee (NEC)

The POA has an NEC with named officers.

Branch officials and local committee members

The handbook refers to them throughout. They are the first contact for members in an establishment and complete forms and attend meetings locally.

• Headquarters: Cronin House, 245 Church Street, London N9 9HW (POA contact page).
• Offices: a Scotland office in Alloa, a North regional office in Leeds and a Northern Ireland office.
• The same page gives a membership enquiries email address. We have not reproduced phone numbers or individual officials' details here because they change.

In shortThe union's own account and the sourced legal record differ in what we can cross-check; the history explains why pay runs through a review body rather than bargaining.

Alongside that union account sit sourced events we cover in the strike guide, listed below. We treat the POA's page as the union's account and the court judgment as the primary record, and we do not repeat dates from the POA's page that we could not cross-check.

That history explains why pay and conditions in England and Wales run through a review body instead of collective bargaining.

The Government told the ILO that the PSPRB was created in exchange for the Prison Service giving up setting pay unilaterally and the POA agreeing not to organise industrial action, as recorded in the PSPRB's own report.

The POA has said it would prefer collective bargaining on pay. Our PSPRB explainer sets out how the review body works today.

• 2001: the Prison Service Pay Review Body was set up.
• 2004: the POA complained to the International Labour Organization.
• 15 November 2016: a national protest led to a High Court injunction the same day.
• 19 July 2017: a permanent injunction followed.
• 19 December 2019: the High Court dealt with contempt in a judgment.

In shortThe POA asked for 6.3% or a restructured scale; the PSPRB recommended 3.5% and the Government accepted all 12 recommendations.

• POA ask (option 2)6.3%Or option 1, a restructured spot-rate scale
• PSPRB recommendation3.5%Accepted by Government
• Payment Plus£23 an hourPOA asked for £30 (option 2)
• Member survey1,600 responsesUnion members, not population statistics

Every year the PSPRB invites the recognised unions and HMPPS to submit evidence, hears them in person and then makes recommendations. For the 2026/27 round the POA submitted written evidence (its CIRC 074) and gave oral evidence.

The PSPRB did not adopt either proposal. It recommended 3.5% consolidated and pensionable pay for bands 3 to 12 and for the band 2 spot rate, Payment Plus at £23 an hour, and a rise in the London differentials, and the Government accepted all 12 recommendations.

For the figures that now apply to you, see prison officer pay bands and the 2026/27 pay rise guide.

In shortThe scheme is discretionary: a committee approves each request, initial advice is preliminary only, and Rule 19.8 excludes matters that began before you joined.

The POA's website says members receive legal assistance and representation on any work-related matter, delivered mainly through Thompsons Solicitors, with initial advice free. The detail is in the Legal Advice Scheme handbook for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which sets out Rule 19 of the union's constitution.

Read together they describe a discretionary scheme: a Legal Aid Committee (chaired by a Vice Chair and including the General Secretary, an NEC member and an Assistant Secretary) decides whether to approve each request, and the member has the right to appeal to the NEC within three months of the written decision.

Rule 19.4

Requests for initial advice on a work-related matter go to the committee, and if approved the advice is preliminary only, with the union not liable for further costs unless assistance is approved under Rule 19.5.

Rule 19.5

Any full member may apply for legal assistance on legal, quasi-judicial or disciplinary proceedings connected with their work. The committee can attach conditions or withdraw support, and it is not responsible for costs incurred before approval or after withdrawal.

Rule 19.10

Limits when the union will pay costs or damages awarded against a member.

Rule 19.8

No initial advice or assistance will be provided to a new or re-joining member for proceedings that were started, or under investigation, before they joined or re-joined.

• The handbook's guidelines say assistance will not generally be granted where the claim has weak prospects.
• Nor where internal remedies have not been tried, or where the costs are disproportionate.
• Nor where the member is subject to internal disciplinary proceedings, subject to exceptional circumstances. We explain that last guideline with caution below because it sits awkwardly with Rule 19.5.

In shortAt an internal hearing the person beside you is usually a branch official, not a solicitor; the solicitor scheme is for the legal parts, and you have no statutory right to a lawyer at the hearing.

The POA's local officials act as workplace representatives, separate from the solicitor scheme. The HMPPS Conduct and Discipline policy, as we summarise in our misconduct explainer, entitles you to be accompanied to investigation interviews and hearings by a trade union representative or a work colleague.

More generally the law gives workers a right to be accompanied at a disciplinary hearing by a colleague or a trade union representative or official, who may address the hearing and confer with you but cannot answer for you (GOV.UK, last updated 2016).

You do not have a statutory right to a lawyer at the hearing itself.

In shortThe handbook's deadlines are tight, the union's own application cut-offs are earlier than the legal limits, and honest disclosure to your solicitor is a condition of the scheme.

The handbook is blunt about deadlines, and they are the part of the scheme that matters most for members who delay.

For a Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority claim after an assault at work, the limitation period is two years from the incident, and the handbook says the incident must be reported to the police as soon as is reasonably practicable or the claim can be disqualified.

For personal injury and stress claims the limit is three years from the incident or from knowledge of the illness, but members are told to report to the union's solicitors no later than two years and six months after the event.

• For most employment claims the handbook gives the time limit as three months less a day and tells members to submit applications to the union within two months, otherwise the claim may be rejected.
• It recommends raising a written grievance before a tribunal claim, because failing to follow the ACAS Code without good reason may reduce compensation by up to 25%.
• Where the union supports one party in a claim it will not support the opposing party except for initial advice.
• Where a member wilfully misrepresents or fails to disclose a material fact to the union's solicitors under Rules 19.9 and 19.10 they may become liable for costs that result.
• Funding for a criminal defence is withdrawn if the member pleads guilty, and the member's means may be assessed by the Legal Aid Agency if charges proceed to trial.

In shortWith industrial action barred, the POA works through letters, evidence and legal applications, and these are the union's positions, not settled outcomes.

Because section 127 and the permanent injunction bar industrial action in England and Wales, the POA's public work on conditions takes other forms.

On safety, the POA's evidence to the PSPRB drew attention to the official assault figures, which we analyse in our guide to prison officer assault statistics, and to staffing.

The union argues that officer numbers have 'flatlined' since 2020 and that detached duty has become a routine response to chronic shortages, a view the PSPRB reports; HMPPS argues there are signs of improvement. Our staffing and attrition guide sets out the official numbers behind both views.

In shortEach recognised union has a different constituency: the POA for uniformed grades, the PGA for governors and managers in bands 7 to 12, and PCS for Civil Service staff generally.

The PSPRB's 2026 report lists the recognised parties that gave evidence as the POA, the Prison Governors' Association and the Public and Commercial Services Union, with HMPPS and the Treasury, and it also received a written submission this year from the Criminal Justice Workers Union.

The table below sets out only facts we could source; where we could not, we say so.

• Band 3 officer: the POA is the union most closely tied to your role and pay round.
• Governor or operational manager in bands 7 to 12: the PGA is the relevant body.
• PCS represents staff across the Civil Service and gave oral evidence to the PSPRB through its HMPPS branch.
• Membership of more than one union is possible in principle, but each has its own rules and benefits, so ask each what you would receive.

In shortThe join page does not state the subscription, so ask the union for the fee, the current handbook and any waiting period in writing.

The join page says you apply online, receive a registration confirmation, and become a full member on receiving a welcome email. It does not state the subscription amount, so we do not quote one.

Ask the union for the current fee, how it is collected and whether there is a waiting period before the legal scheme applies to a new matter.

• Benefits the page lists: legal services, violence-in-the-workplace support, access to a welfare fund, discounts on cars, health, leisure, financial services and insurance, educational training, and a credit union.

1. Check which union covers your grade and employer: POA for most officer and OSG roles, PGA for governors, others for non-operational staff.
2. Ask the POA for the current fee, handbook edition and any waiting period in writing.
3. Join when you are not under investigation, because Rule 19.8 excludes matters that began before you joined or re-joined.
4. Keep the handbook and your branch officer's contact details somewhere you can reach them outside work.
5. If something happens, tell your branch immediately and note the time limits in the table above.