Prison Officer Pay Northern Ireland: NIPS Salary 2026

In shortA new NIPS officer starts at £32,510 plus the £4,284 SRA, £36,794 in cash, on the 2025/26 scale.

• Starting total£36,794£32,510 plus the SRA of £4,284
• Top-point total£47,009Salary plus SRA; the SRA is non-pensionable
• Working week39 hoursPSPRB tables base officer and support grade rates on 39 hours unless stated

The Department of Justice Northern Ireland's recruitment page for the Custody Prison Officer campaign (closing 12 noon on Friday 17 July 2026) lists a salary of £32,510 to £42,725 per annum '(under review)', a Supplementary Risk Allowance of £4,284 per annum and a boot allowance of £92.80 per annum.

Those two ends of the range match the minimum and maximum of the Custody Prison Officer scale in the PSPRB's July 2025 letter for 2025/26, so they are the 1 April 2025 figures.

In shortNI pay is agreed locally, endorsed by the PSPRB and decided by the NI Justice Minister; the 2026/27 outcome was not found.

• Governors, Senior Officers, CPOs, Main Grade Officers3%Headline award, from 1 April 2025
• Night Custody Officers and Prisoner Custody Officers4%From 1 April 2025
• Operational Support Grade (and PECCS Managers)6%From 1 April 2025

The Prison Service Pay Review Body covers Northern Ireland as well as England and Wales, but it reports on NI to the NI Justice Minister, who decides when and how to respond.

For 2025/26 the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Prison Governors' Association (NI) and the POA(NI) agreed a package in July 2025 and the PSPRB endorsed all of it, submitting a letter rather than a full report to speed up payment.

• One Custody Prison Officer pay point was removed to create a six-point scale, with an intention to reduce to five points in 2026/27.
• The paybill cost was put at 4.2% excluding progression.
• The 2025/26 headline for Custody Prison Officers was 3%; the 4% applied only to Night Custody Officers and Prisoner Custody Officers.

In shortWith the SRA, the NI start (£36,794) is almost identical to E&W Band 3 on 39 hours (£36,816), but NI climbs further, to £47,009.

The most direct comparison is NIPS's 39-hour CPO scale with England and Wales Band 3 on 39 hours (two pensionable additional committed hours, National zone). The England and Wales figures are £36,816, £38,104 and £38,766 for pay points 1 to 3, including 20% UWH.

Adding the SRA, the NI starting figure of £36,794 is almost identical to £36,816 (a £22 difference), but NI climbs to £47,009 while England and Wales stops at £38,766 unless the officer works longer hours or is promoted.

Hourly, pay point 1

NI is £15.99 an hour before the SRA and £18.09 with it; England and Wales pay point 1 on 39 hours is £18.10.

Hourly, top of scale

NI is £21.01 (£23.12 with SRA) against £19.06 (our 52.143-week convention).

Caution on the rates

These are illustrative: the England and Wales rates include the 20% allowance; the NI scale's treatment of unsocial hours is not described in the sources we read, so the SRA is a risk allowance rather than a shift allowance.

In shortThe £4,284 SRA is a large, non-pensionable part of NI pay: include it for cash in hand but not for pension.

The SRA is a flat annual allowance paid to officer, support and PECCS grades in Bands 1 to 5, and extended in full to governor grades from 1 April 2025. The DoJ NI advert states £4,284 a year. The PSPRB's note says the allowance is non-pensionable.

At the minimum, the £4,284 SRA is 13% of the scale minimum. Because it is non-pensionable, it increases take-home pay but does not increase the pension you build. By contrast, England and Wales's UWH is pensionable.

• The PSPRB described its level as £4,110 until 31 August 2025, with the new level set to the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Transitional Allowance (NITA) from 1 September 2025.
• In England and Wales, a union request for a Supplementary Risk Allowance of £4,000 for Bands 3 to 5 and £2,000 for Band 2 was rejected by the PSPRB in 2026; there is no equivalent allowance there.
• See market supplements for the England and Wales location payments that do exist.

In shortNI has paid overtime and dated holiday premia, a very different system from England and Wales, where Payment Plus is the only extra for Bands 3 to 5.

The PSPRB's July 2025 Annex B sets out overtime for officer and support grades (Bands 1 to 5) in Northern Ireland: weekdays at plain time and weekends at time and a half, non-pensionable. Staff on less than full conditioned hours receive plain time for additional hours up to full hours.

Bank and public holidays

Payments apply to named dates: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the third day at Christmas and New Year's Day, with 17 March and 12 July added from 1 April 2025, six in total. Rostered staff receive plain time plus a half premium, rest-day staff time and a half; staff working in establishments receive it on the stipulated date. These are non-pensionable.

Specialist allowances

The agreement also added specialist non-pensionable allowances for Control and Restraint instructors, advanced trained staff, incident negotiators and the Tactical Response Group, a £250 payment on passing initial training and a £250 yearly retainer.

England and Wales comparison

Payment Plus is £23 an hour for specified duties; the public holiday treatment is a flat 20% UWH allowance rather than a dated premium.

In shortNI's other grades sit on their own 2025/26 scales; the NI Senior Officer is the first-line manager equivalent of an England and Wales Band 5.

The 2025/26 scales for NI's other grades, also on a 39-hour week unless shown, are in the list below.

Governor grades run from Band 6 (Head of Unit) to Band 10 (Director of Prisons) with a separate scale: for example the Band 8 Governor in Charge scale runs from £86,257 to £92,697 from 1 April 2025 (five points).

• Senior Officer (Band 5): £46,095, £47,171, £48,248, £49,325 and £50,797.
• Operational Support Grade (Band 1): £28,150, £28,495 and £28,839.
• PECCS Manager (40 hours): £43,035, £43,990 and £44,850.
• Night Custody Officers (44 hours): £32,267 to £35,786.

In shortThe 2025/26 agreement cut the CPO scale to six points, and the NI pay tables assume a 39-hour week, not 37.

The 2025/26 agreement removed one pay point from the CPO scale to create six points, with the intention of reducing to five in 2026/27.

• Those on the old minimum moved to pay point two on the new scale, subject to a satisfactory performance report.
• The longest-serving officers on the old fifth point moved to the new maximum.
• A Custody Prison Officer who has not completed the Certificate of Competence by the time they reach pay point three is held on that point until it is obtained.

In shortThese 2025 figures show a stretched service and help explain the large risk allowance, but they are context, not current data.

• Staff on 1 April 20251,386Up 0.9% in a year
• Leaving rate7.2%Up from 5.0% in 2024-25
• Sickness absence26 daysAverage; down from 27 but still high
• Prison population2,009Record; 5% higher than a year earlier

The PSPRB's July 2025 letter records some stark data for NIPS.

• A reported 82.5% rise in assaults on prison staff, described by the PSPRB as an apparent sharp increase.
• Paybill costs rose 17%, or £84.5 million, in 2024-25.
• The PSPRB also compared pay with the wider economy: it said the CPO scale was 25% above median economy-wide earnings in Northern Ireland in 2023-24 (ASHE data for April 2024) compared with 7% to 10% above in 2015-16, and above all comparator ranges except the Police Service of Northern Ireland constable, which it overlaps.
• These figures are from a 2025 letter and not a 2026 report. For the England and Wales position see prison staffing and attrition and prison officer assault statistics.

In shortNI looks similar to England and Wales at entry and higher by mid-scale, but the SRA is not pensionable and NI figures may have been revised.

Example 1: new officer. Chris joins NIPS at pay point 1: £32,510 plus the SRA of £4,284, so £36,794 a year in cash. A new England and Wales officer on 39 hours is on £36,816. The cash difference is £22.

Chris's pension is built on £32,510 only; the England and Wales officer's pension is built on the full £36,816 (UWH is pensionable).

Example 2: five years later. If Chris progresses through the six points, pay point 5 is £40,682 plus the SRA, £44,966. An England and Wales officer is at the top of Band 3 (£38,766 on 39 hours) and would need to move to 41 hours or win promotion to earn more.

These are 2025/26 NI figures against 2026/27 England and Wales figures, so check whether NI has revised its scale.

Example 3: weekend overtime. A NI officer working an extra weekend shift is paid at time and a half under the 2025/26 agreement. At £32,510 the plain hourly rate is £15.99, so the weekend hourly rate is about £23.98.

In England and Wales, a Band 3 officer on a qualifying duty is paid £23 an hour Payment Plus. Both are estimates.

1. Ask NIPS which pay scale and date apply to your offer: the advert says 'under review'.
2. Confirm the weekly hours (the published tables assume 39).
3. Add the SRA to cash pay but exclude it from pension calculations.
4. Ask for the overtime and bank holiday premium rules in writing.
5. Check whether a 2026/27 award has been agreed and when it will be paid.
6. Compare with an England and Wales offer on hours, pension and allowances.