Prison Officer Detached Duty: What It Is and What You Get

In shortDetached duty means working at a different prison for operational reasons while your contract and pay stay at home, and HMPPS publishes no policy detailing how it works.

The Pay Review Body's 2026 report defines detached duty simply: prison officers work at a different prison to their home prison for operational reasons. Your contract and pay stay with your home establishment, but for a period you are deployed to another one, which is typically short of staff.

HMPPS's 2025 evidence to the Pay Review Body describes 'frontloading', recruiting above required staffing levels in certain prisons or regions to give system-wide resilience through national detached duty, as standard practice.

In shortDetached duty exists because of staffing shortfalls, and how much it is used is contested between HMPPS and the POA.

• Below target staffingAround 1,500Staff, per the Pay Review Body in March 2026

The Pay Review Body noted in March 2026 that HMPPS 'relies on costly detached duty to ensure that certain establishments are able to function'. HMPPS's own evidence says a stability measure for each prison considers its detached duty provision, and that frontloading uses national detached duty to deploy staff from one prison to another.

• Staffing remains a particular challenge in the long-term high security estate, which HMPPS attributes to candidates not meeting residency requirements for Counter Terrorist Checks, poor transport links to rural locations and reporting of high-profile assaults.
• HMPPS data on numbers was not in the sources we could open, and press figures that circulate are secondary, so we do not quote them.

In shortThe POA defines national detached duty as more than a 75-minute drive, or 90 minutes within London, to the site.

The POA's National Chair update of November 2022 states: 'National detached duty is classed as travelling more than a 75-minute drive or 90 minutes within London to get to the Detached duty site.' That is the clearest published definition we found.

It implies that detached duty within those travel times is treated differently, as a local or regional arrangement, with different expectations.

• POA members who volunteer for national detached duty serve as Band 3 prison officers and cannot be compelled to work at higher pay grades, even if asked.
• Receiving establishments must provide a full induction including site familiarisation, incident procedures, radio information, health and safety documentation and a liaison officer for welfare support.

In shortWe cannot tell you whether detached duty is compulsory today: two dated POA statements disagree and we found no later circular.

The honest answer is that the published sources have changed and disagree. Those are two dated statements from the same union, four months apart, about HMPPS guidance. We have not seen the HMPPS guidance itself.

In shortThe only hard number is a cost to the service of about £942 a week; what the officer receives, including any bonus, is not published.

• Assumed average costAbout £942 a weekHMPPS estimate, per the Pay Review Body; costs vary
• At 52 weeks of detached duty£48,984Over 52 weeks: a cost to the service, not an amount an officer receives

That cost will include travel, accommodation and other costs as well as any payments to the individual. It is an estimate, not an entitlement.

Detached duty bonus (POA circular, September 2023)

Officers who do not complete their full detached duty period because of sickness are not entitled to the full bonus unless they complete the hours on return. If an officer is assaulted at work and granted a sick leave excusal they may keep contributing on the basis of the mean average of detached duty hours worked in the preceding 13 weeks. The proposal moved towards pro rata bonus payments commensurate with the weeks completed. The circular as we read it gives no bonus amounts, so we cannot tell you what is paid.

Travel, subsistence and accommodation

We did not find published rules on travel and subsistence for detached duty, accommodation or how the time travelling is treated for pay and TOIL.

Tax

Reimbursements and allowances can be taxable or not depending on what they are; payroll and HMRC are the sources, not rumour.

In shortBecause the published rules are thin, get every term in writing before you agree to a deployment.

Before you agree, or are sent, get the terms in writing: where, for how long, how many shifts a week, which hours, which role and pay band, and what is paid for travel and accommodation. Ask how your roster at the receiving prison will work and whether your contract hours and leave are unaffected.

1. Ask in writing: location, start and end dates, shift pattern, role, and who you report to.
2. Ask for the journey time from home so you know whether it counts as national detached duty (more than a 75-minute drive, or 90 minutes within London, per the POA).
3. Ask what travel, accommodation and bonus payments apply, how they are taxed and when they are paid.
4. Ask how sickness or injury during the deployment affects any bonus (POA circular, September 2023).
5. Ask who your liaison officer is and what induction you will receive.
6. Ask how your leave, TOIL and Payment Plus are handled while away.
7. Contact your POA branch before you agree if you have concerns, and keep copies of everything.

In shortReliance on detached duty leaves empty posts behind and has no published link to promotion or transfers; HMPPS and the unions both want it reduced.

From the viewpoint of those who stay behind, detached duty can mean empty posts and Payment Plus or TOIL cover. For you, that means the likelihood of being asked to go, or of covering for those who have, depends on how a prison is staffed.

In shortThis guide concerns HMPPS in England and Wales; the Scottish policy is an emergency-response one, and nothing was found for Northern Ireland or private operators.

Scotland

The Scottish Prison Service publishes an Exceptional Duty Payments policy (version HR0021/v001, effective 15 September 2017, with a review date of 15 September 2020) covering payments to staff who respond to an 'exigency of the service' or a level 3 incident, including national deployment. It is an emergency-response policy and is not the same thing as routine detached duty, and it is dated, so check the current SPS version.

Northern Ireland

We found no published detached duty policy for the Northern Ireland Prison Service.

Private prisons

We found no verified information on private prison operators, who employ their own staff on their own terms rather than HMPPS ones. If you work for a private operator, check your contract and your employer's policies on working at other sites.