Prison Officer Bank Holiday Pay 2026: Rules, Rates, Dates

In shortA rostered bank holiday shift carries no separate premium for Bands 3 to 5; extra duty is Payment Plus, and Band 2 overtime uses a 1.75 multiplier.

Prisons do not close on bank holidays, so officers work them. The question is what you are paid.

For Band 3, 4 and 5 staff on Fair and Sustainable terms, the verified answer is that the pay tables carry a flat 20% unsocial working hours allowance, and the HMPPS pay page says the published figures include it.

HMPPS adverts describe the rolling pattern as including nights, evenings, weekends and bank or public holidays. We treat that advert wording as indicative because the page we saw has since been removed.

• A rostered bank holiday shift does not generate a separate premium line in the sources we read.
• Working extra changes your pay: Payment Plus (£23 an hour from 1 April 2026) can be paid for a qualifying duty on a non-working day or outside your scheduled shift.
• Band 2 operational support grades get overtime at the weekend multiplier of 1.75 times base, because the PSPRB defines weekend time as including a public or bank holiday.

In shortThe law gives no right to a bank holiday off or to extra pay for working one: your contract and the PSPRB's accepted recommendations decide.

In shortOnly two bank holidays remain in 2026, Friday 25 December and Monday 28 December, and 2027 has eight.

• Left in 2026TwoFriday 25 December (Christmas Day) and Monday 28 December (Boxing Day, substitute day), as at 3 October 2026
• In 2027EightFrom 1 January to 28 December

GOV.UK lists the England and Wales bank holidays. Prison pay is monthly, so a holiday that falls late in a pay period shows up on the following payslip if you have extra duty paid through Payment Plus or overtime.

• If you are Band 2 and expect overtime for either December day, check the pay cut-off date with payroll rather than assuming it falls into December.
• For scheduling and family planning, ask your establishment how holiday rosters are allocated. HMPPS publishes no national rule that we could find, and local practice varies.
• Leave rules are covered in prison officer leave and time off and annual leave.

In shortA rostered Band 3 shift has no extra line, while a Band 2 OSG on a bank holiday earns about £28.05 an hour.

• Band 3 bedwatch, six hours£138 grossAbout £99 net, at £23 an hour Payment Plus; non-pensionable
• Band 2 bank holiday overtimeAbout £28.05 an hour£224 for eight hours gross
• Band 2 weekday overtimeAbout £22.52 an hour

Example one: Band 3, pay point 3

Rostered to work Monday 28 December. Their pay is the annual £36,778 (37 hours including UWH) paid in monthly instalments. There is no extra line for the rostered shift, as far as the published structure shows. If they are additionally asked to do a six-hour bedwatch beyond their scheduled hours, the Payment Plus rate of £23 an hour gives £138 gross, about £99 net at the basic rate of tax and NI, non-pensionable.

Example two: Band 2 OSG, National scale

£25,409 base, about £13.17 an hour on our 52.143-week, 37-hour convention, works eight hours of pre-agreed overtime on a bank holiday. At the weekend multiplier of 1.75 that is about £23.05 an hour, plus £5, so about £28.05 an hour and £224 for eight hours gross. Time off in lieu, if taken instead, is paid at single time only.

Estimates

These are estimates from the published formula; the Board's own worked effective multipliers on 2025 pay were 1.72 weekday and 2.14 weekend.

In shortHMPPS lists 25 days annual leave rising to 30 plus public and privilege holidays, but we could not confirm the count from a live source.

• Annual leave25 daysRising to 30 after 10 years' service (Employee Package, 2023-24 edition)
• Public holidaysEightPlus one extra privilege day
• Nine days in all66 hours 36 minutesMatches an advert snippet we saw mentioning 9 days

HMPPS lists 25 days annual leave increasing to 30 with long service, with the ability to carry over, and to buy or sell days. That package edition predates 2026, so check your contract.

Here is arithmetic worth knowing, not a policy claim: 25 days is below the statutory 28 days for a five-day-week worker, so for the service to meet the statutory minimum, the difference must come from public or privilege holiday time or from an hours-based entitlement.

• Whether you are given leave 'in hours', as days, or as a bank holiday allowance, is a point to check in your own leave record.
• The PSPRB's Appendix G shows both public holidays and privilege holidays in the on-call allowance rules (£25 per 24 hours on weekends and public holidays, and £9 per period of 12 hours or more on weekdays and privilege holidays), so privilege holidays exist as a concept in the pay framework.
• For the working-life detail, see prison officer leave and time off.

In shortNo separate Christmas premium is published for Bands 3 to 5, so rostered shifts are paid within salary and extra duty is Payment Plus where it qualifies.

Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the pressure points for rosters and the point of most anxiety about pay.

For the grades we can analyse the answer is unchanged: no separate Christmas premium is published for Bands 3 to 5, so any rostered Christmas shift is paid within the annual salary, and extra duty is Payment Plus where it qualifies.

Band 2 overtime on a public holiday uses the 1.75 multiplier.

In shortExtra holiday payments are fully taxable earnings, so a basic-rate taxpayer keeps about 72p of every extra pound.

• Basic rateAbout 72pPer extra pound: 20% tax and 8% NI; a £23 hour is about £16.56 net
• Above £50,27042%Marginal rate on the part above the threshold: 40% tax plus 2% NI

In 2026/27 income tax is 20% on income between the £12,570 personal allowance and £50,270, with 40% above to £125,140, and employee National Insurance is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above, according to GOV.UK.

Payment Plus and Band 2 overtime are non-pensionable, so no alpha contribution is taken from them, but they are fully taxable. Extra payments are taxed in the month you receive them using your tax code, so a bank holiday cluster in one month can look larger than your annual rate suggests.

In shortSince the published sources are silent on several points, ask precise questions and keep the answers.

These are the ones that settle most disputes.

1. Which of my rostered bank holiday hours are treated as ordinary contracted hours (and so inside my 20% UWH) and which count as extra?
2. If I work a bank holiday that is also a non-working day for me, is the time paid as Payment Plus, as time off in lieu, or not at all, and under which policy?
3. How many public and privilege holiday days am I entitled to in addition to my 25 days (or 30 with long service), and is it expressed in days or hours?
4. If I am Band 2, what multiplier and £5 an hour is applied to my bank holiday overtime, and when will it appear on my payslip?
5. Where is the local holiday roster rule written down, and who approves swaps?