Prison Governors Association (PGA) Explained for 2026

In shortThe PGA is the trade union for governors and operational managers in bands 7 to 12, a small group of 983 FTE next to the officer workforce.

• Bands 7 to 12983 FTE30 September 2025
• Remit group28,905 FTESame date
• Operational managersAround 3.4%Of the remit group
• On Fair and Sustainable99.6%Of operational managers

Its website says it represents operational and senior operational managers in grades 11 to 7 and senior civil servants with operational prison backgrounds, with governors, deputy governors and other governor-grade posts as the core membership. The PSPRB's 2026 report records the figures above.

The PGA is not part of HMPPS, the Ministry of Justice or the POA, and this site is independent of all of them.

What the union does is represent members' interests, promote what it calls continuous improvement within the criminal justice system, provide legal protection as a membership benefit, publish statements on prison issues and give evidence on pay.

The site does not give subscription levels or the detail of the legal-protection rules, so we cannot describe those.

Operational managers

Staff in the Fair and Sustainable bands 7 to 12 working in prisons and operational roles: Heads of Function, deputy governors, governors and Prison Group Directors.

Fair and Sustainable

The pay structure introduced in 2012 for most HMPPS staff. Our prison governor roles guide explains how the jobs fit together and our prison governor salary guide goes through pay in more depth.

In shortBy its own account the PGA was founded in October 1987 and certified independent in 1988; we have not checked those dates against the Certification Officer's register.

We have not independently verified those dates against the Certification Officer's register. The PGA says it represents members across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and has over 1,000 members, some of whom are seconded to headquarters and other criminal justice bodies.

That membership claim is undated on the page, so we use it only as the union's own description.

The PSPRB report adds a separate data point, from the PGA's evidence: at 31 March 2025 there were around 275 staff in operational manager grades on temporary cover arrangements within a group totalling around 1,100.

In shortOperational managers are in bands 7 to 12: Band 7 is a spot rate, bands 8 to 11 are ranges with a pensionable 20% Required Hours Addition, and Band 12 is an inclusive spot rate.

Pay below is the 2026/27 national scale, from the PSPRB's Appendix E, effective 1 April 2026. Your own pay depends on your band, your point in the range, your location and any allowances, and it is set out in more detail in our band 6 and 7 manager pay guide.

• Band 7 is a Head of Function spot rate; bands 8 to 11 are pay ranges with progression; band 12 is the Prison Group Director spot rate.
• Since the 2024 report the ranges for bands 8 to 11 have been 10% wide, and the PSPRB and HMPPS agreed that operational managers should become competent in three years and progress from minimum to maximum in three years.
• Bands 7 to 11 receive a 20% Required Hours Addition (RHA), which is pensionable, to recognise the hours the roles require. Band 12 has no RHA because the spot rate is inclusive. London roles add cash differentials.
• The 2026/27 award gave 3.5% on base pay and, for bands 8 to 11 not on formal poor performance procedures and in post on 31 March 2026, a pensionable 3 and one-third per cent progression capped at the new band maximum.

In shortThe PGA told the PSPRB that governors work about 48 hours a week against 37 contracted; these are union survey results, not official statistics.

• Average week48 hoursAgainst a contracted 37
• Families commented on hoursAround 80%PGA survey
• Did not feel rested after leaveOver 70%PGA survey
• Ill health from work stressMore than halfOf respondents

The PGA's 2026 evidence, as summarised by the PSPRB, was blunt about working conditions. It said the physical state of the estate was unacceptable and that governors lacked the authority or resources to make long-overdue improvements.

It said the system remained under sustained strain despite a marginal drop in population from its 2024 high, and that governors were too often treated as scapegoats for shortcomings in centrally managed contracts such as education and healthcare. It felt cautious optimism about the sentencing review though any day-to-day effect was likely to be distant.

On hours, it said taking back hours was almost impossible and overtime unpaid, and that some governing governors were effectively on call every weekday and 26 weekends a year.

The PSPRB shared the concern: it asked HMPPS and the PGA for evidence on operational managers' hours in time for the next report, noting that governors are not rostered like band 2 to 5 staff.

In shortThe PGA asked for 5% and a structural reset costed at about £30.5 million; the PSPRB recommended 3.5% and 3 1/3% progression for bands 8 to 11, all accepted by Government.

The PGA's written evidence made a long list of proposals, which the PSPRB records in full. The union costed the package at around £30.5 million and argued it was affordable because of the small numbers in bands 7 to 12.

• Restoring the percentage differential between the band 7 spot rate and the band 11 maximum to the original Fair and Sustainable level from 2012.
• Resetting the bases for bands 7 to 11 and band 12 to 2012 levels with inflation applied, and a gap of at least 10% between each band.
• A headline increase of 5% and progression of one-third of the band.
• An enhanced RHA starting at 25% for operational managers allocated to prisons, and accreditation payments scaling to 25% for Prison Group Directors.
• Redefined London differentials, funded healthcare, salary sacrifice schemes and a funded performance bonus system.

In shortHMPPS and the PGA agreed three areas to review together for the 2027 Report; no detail was published as at 3 October 2026.

One of the more unusual features of the 2026 round is that HMPPS and the PGA agreed general principles and three areas to review together, with early sight to the PSPRB. What those mean in practice is not yet public.

The PSPRB says it looks forward to receiving the joint proposals for its 2027 Report, and we found no published detail of the proposals as at 3 October 2026.

The 2027/28 remit letter of 15 July 2026 asked the PSPRB to report at the earliest point it can and said pay must be funded within departmental budgets, so the room for new payments is uncertain. We will not guess at outcomes; our 2027/28 pay round guide tracks the process.

1. Flexible recruitment

Enhanced flexibility in recruiting for governor roles, including exploring tailored contracts for governor appointments that set out incentives, improve transparency and target recruitment better.

2. Temporary cover payments

A joint commitment to resolve the situation in which staff on temporary cover receive higher pay than substantive post holders.

3. Accreditation or utilisation payments

Sometimes described as a 'licence to operate', for roles including Head of Function, Deputy Governor, Governor and Gold Commander.

In shortThe POA represents uniformed grades below governor level and the PGA represents operational managers and governors; the PGA's position on industrial action is not verified.

The two unions overlap on the issues, but they do not overlap on who they represent. Both reported record or near-record assault and self-harm levels in their 2026 evidence, though they draw different conclusions from them. Our POA guide covers the officer-side union in the same level of detail.

A point we deliberately do not address is the position of governor grades on industrial action.

The PGA pages we read are silent on it, and while section 127 of the 1994 Act defines who counts as a prison officer, we have not verified how it applies to governor grades, so we do not state a view.

If it matters to you, take advice from the PGA or a solicitor. The PSPRB itself notes that more than 80% of its remit group cannot take industrial action, which is the context for pay review rather than negotiation.

In shortThree themes recur: hours, the pay gap between bands, and heavy reliance on temporary cover.

These pressures sit against a changing estate. The adult prison population was 87,499 on 28 September 2026 against a useable operational capacity of 89,055, a headroom of 1,556 places (HMPPS weekly population bulletin), and a governor has to manage that crowding, an expanding build programme and an incoming Sentencing Act release schedule at once.

Our prison capacity guide covers the numbers. How much of the PGA's concern is pay and how much is workload is a matter on which the union, HMPPS and the PSPRB have different emphases.

• Hours: the 48-hour average and heavy on-call duty are the union's survey findings, and the PSPRB's own visits heard reports of a long-hours culture.
• Progression and pay structure: the PGA wants a gap of at least 10% between bands so that promotion pays, which is one of its 2026 proposals.
• Temporary cover: with roughly 275 of around 1,100 operational manager posts covered temporarily at March 2025, a lot of governance relies on acting-up arrangements.