Prison Officer Starting Salary 2026/27: £34,928 and Up

In shortStarting pay is £34,928 nationally on 37 hours (including the 20% unsocial hours allowance), £38,840 in outer London and £40,876 in inner London.

• National£34,92837 hours; base pay before the allowance is £29,107
• Outer London£38,84037 hours
• Inner London£40,87637 hours
• Scottish Prison Service£37,682Residential Officer, from 1 April 2026

The advertised starting salary for a new prison officer (Band 3, pay point 1) is £34,928 a year for the national location on the 37 hour contract that all trainees begin on. The base pay before the allowance is £29,107.

That figure includes a 20% unsocial working hours allowance, built into contracted pay because prison officers work nights, evenings, weekends and bank holidays on a rolling roster.

Where you work changes the number. HMPPS Prison and Probation Jobs lists starting salaries by three location categories: inner London, outer London and everywhere else.

• 37 hours: inner London £40,876, outer London £38,840, national £34,928.
• 39 hours: inner London £43,453, outer London £41,290, national £36,816.
• 41 hours: inner London £46,031, outer London £43,739, national £39,334.

In shortThe start is the first published Band 3 pay point plus the 20% unsocial hours allowance: £29,107 base becomes £34,928, and the older £33,746 figure is out of date.

The starting salary is not a single negotiated number; it is the first pay point on a published scale. The PSPRB recommended and the Government accepted a 3.5% increase to the Band 3 base pay points from 1 April 2026, giving £29,107, £30,125 and £30,648 on the national 37 hour base.

The 20% unsocial hours allowance is then added to produce the three headline figures of £34,928, £36,150 and £36,778. A new joiner starts on the first.

The allowance matters twice, and it is not overtime.

• It is pensionable, so it counts towards your Civil Service pension.
• It is paid on contracted hours, so a longer contract means a larger allowance.
• There is no overtime for Bands 3 to 5, so the 'starting salary' in an advert is not made up of overtime. Payment Plus, at £23 an hour for qualifying duties, is a separate extra and not part of the starting figure. See Payment Plus explained.

In shortEveryone starts on 37 hours; after training you can choose 39 or 41, worth £1,888 and £4,406 more a year at the national start, but no change-of-hours policy is published.

• 37 hours£34,928Every trainee starts here
• 39 hours£36,816+£1,888 a year over 37 hours (£36,816 against £34,928)
• 41 hours£39,334+£4,406 a year over 37 hours

HMPPS states that all trainee prison officers start on a 37 hour contract, and that once training is complete they can choose to increase to 39 or 41 hours a week. The published tables also include 38 and 40 hour options.

We have not found a published HMPPS policy setting out how and when a change of hours can be made or how the additional committed hours are priced. Treat a promised date for a hours change as something to confirm in writing with your establishment.

At the PSPRB's last count (31 July 2025), Band 3 staff were on these contracts:

• 45% on 37 hours.
• 29% on 39 hours with two ACH.
• 15% on 39 hours with two ACHP.
• 9% on 41 hours.
• 1% or fewer on 38 or 40 hours.

In shortOn 37 hours, inner London starts £5,948 above the national figure and outer London £3,912 above.

• Inner London£40,876£5,948 above national
• Outer London£38,840£3,912 above national
• National£34,928Everywhere else

Location has the biggest effect on the starting figure after contract hours. These differentials are fixed cash amounts set by the PSPRB, and they rose by 3.5% in 2026.

If you are comparing offers in different places, the cost of living matters as much as the headline. A £6,000 London differential does not go far against a London rent.

Inner London

Brixton, Pentonville, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs start at £40,876 on 37 hours.

Outer London

Belmarsh, Downview, Feltham, High Down and Isis, plus the controllers' offices at Bronzefield and Thameside, start at £38,840.

In short18 listed prisons pay a £1,500 to £3,500 supplement in 12 monthly instalments; it is not pensionable and can be withdrawn.

• Prisons listed18As at 3 October 2026
• Amounts£1,500 to £3,500A year, in 12 monthly instalments
• PensionableNoNot part of base salary
• Status kept untilMarch 2027At least, for prisons that currently qualify

At prisons with acute recruitment and retention challenges, Band 3 officers on Fair and Sustainable terms receive a market supplement. As at 3 October 2026 the amounts are £1,500, £2,000, £3,000 and £3,500 a year, paid in 12 monthly instalments, not pensionable, and not part of base salary.

HMPPS says prisons that currently qualify will keep that status until at least March 2027. The 18 sites currently listed are in the table below.

The HMPPS table's quoted salaries include the supplement: for example the national 37 hour figure at a £3,500 prison is £38,428, which is £34,928 plus £3,500.

In shortA national starter on 37 hours keeps roughly £27,380 a year, about £2,280 a month, after tax, National Insurance and pension (our estimate).

• National start, per monthAbout £2,280£27,380 a year on £34,928
• Inner London start, per month£2,600Roughly £31,170 a year on £40,876

A gross starting salary is not what you take home. For 2026/27 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the standard personal allowance of £12,570 applies, income tax is 20% on the next £37,700 and National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270.

Civil Service pension contributions come off as well: 4.6% of pensionable pay up to £36,199 and 5.45% between £36,200 and £56,000, according to the Civil Service Pension Scheme's 2026/27 table.

These are estimates for illustration. They assume tax code 1257L, a pension deducted before tax, no student loan and the whole figure being pensionable, so your payslip may differ. They exclude any market supplement, Payment Plus, student loan repayments and any tax code adjustment, and the real pensionable amount depends on your contract.

• National starter, 37 hours (£34,928): about £4,150 in income tax, £1,789 in National Insurance and £1,607 in pension, leaving roughly £27,380 a year, or about £2,280 a month.
• Inner London starter: an inner London starter on £40,876 keeps roughly £31,170 a year, or £2,600 a month.

In shortTrainees start on 37 hours; week-by-week training pay is not published, and the Band 3 scale has three pay points the aim is to climb in three years.

HMPPS says all trainee prison officers start on a 37 hour contract. We have not found published detail on exactly how pay is treated week by week during training, so check your offer letter for your start date, hours and any relocation or accommodation terms.

Our POELT training guide covers what the initial training involves, and our first year guide covers the probation period. In year one the main pay questions are progression and hours.

• The Band 3 scale has three pay points and the HMPPS objective is to reach the maximum in three years.
• In 2026 staff in post on 31 March, not on formal poor performance procedures, moved up one point, which is why a person on point 1 saw about a 7.1% rise rather than 3.5%.
• Whether progression continues in future years depends on the PSPRB and government for each year. See pay progression.

1. Read the salary line in your offer letter and note the pay point, hours and location.
2. Check whether your prison pays a market supplement and for how long it is expected to continue.
3. Decide whether to stay on 37 hours or ask about 39 or 41 after training, using the table above.
4. Plan your budget on net pay, not the headline figure.
5. Check your first payslip against the table and raise any difference promptly.

In shortThree illustrative starters on the 2026/27 scale: £34,928 (Sam), £40,316 (Priya) and £46,031 (Marcus) gross a year.

Numbers are easier to judge when you see them side by side, so here are three illustrative new officers on the 2026/27 scale. They are examples built from the published tables, not real people and not guarantees.

Sam

Joins a national prison with no supplement and stays on the 37 hour contract. Contracted pay is £34,928, which is £2,911 a month gross before deductions. After one pay point of progression, the figure is £36,150.

Priya

Joins a prison on the £3,500 market supplement list and chooses 39 hours once training is complete. On the national scale, 39 hours with two pensionable additional committed hours at pay point 1 is £36,816, and the supplement adds £3,500 for a total of £40,316. The supplement is not pensionable, so her pension benefit is based on the £36,816 and not the larger figure. If the supplement were eroded by £500 in a later year, she would be £500 a year lower before any pay award.

Marcus

Joins an inner London prison on 41 hours. Pay point 1 on that contract is £46,031, which is £11,103 above Sam's starting figure. It comes from three things at once: the London differential, four extra contracted hours, and the same unsocial hours allowance.

In shortThe Band 3 start of £34,928 sits between Band 2 (£31,761) and the Scottish Residential Officer (£37,682); Northern Ireland figures are provisional.

• Band 2 OSG, 37 hours£31,761Including the temporary 25% allowance
• Band 3 officer£34,92837 hours, England and Wales
• Scotland£37,682Residential Officer, rising to £44,248 within three years
• Northern Ireland£32,510 to £42,725Marked 'under review'

It is natural to ask how the Band 3 start compares with other options. Within England and Wales the Band 2 Operational Support Grade starts lower, at £31,761 on 37 hours nationally including the temporary 25% allowance.

The step from OSG to officer is therefore worth about £3,167 a year at the national entry points, and Band 3 has a ladder above it. Our operational support grade pay guide covers the OSG role in detail.

Scotland

The Scottish Prison Service advertises a Residential Officer starting salary of £37,682 from 1 April 2026, rising to £44,248 within three years. The PSPRB observed in its 2026 report that the Scottish Residential Officer scale is wider than Band 3 in England and Wales and that Band 3 pay sits entirely below it. Scotland also has different leave, pension contributions and income tax, so compare net, not gross. See prison officer pay in Scotland.

Northern Ireland

The Department of Justice's recruitment page for the 2026 Custody Prison Officer competition showed £32,510 to £42,725 marked 'under review', with a Supplementary Risk Allowance of £4,284 a year. The outcome of the 2026/27 NI pay round has not been found, so NI numbers should be treated as provisional.

Private sector custody

The PSPRB reported that Band 3 pay including unsocial hours and two additional committed hours was above the range of the sampled private-sector prison roles, but we have not verified individual private advert figures and do not quote them. See prison custody officer vs prison officer pay.

In shortGet the offer in writing and check pay point, hours, location, supplement and change-of-hours terms before you accept; then work out take-home.

A starting salary is only as useful as the facts behind it. Before you accept, ask for the offer in writing and check each line against the tables in this guide.

Prison recruitment is often a long process (see how long recruitment takes), and by the time an offer arrives the figures may have changed because a new pay year has begun, so check the date of any figure you are given.

1. Get the offer in writing, including pay point, hours, location and start date.
2. Check the figures against the Appendix E tables in this guide (or the HMPPS page) for the right column.
3. Ask about any market supplement and how long it is expected to last.
4. Ask when and how you can change from 37 to 39 or 41 hours.
5. Work out take-home and compare it with your outgoings before you accept.

In shortThe headline is gross, contracted pay: Payment Plus, supplements, London differentials and benefits are separate, and Bands 3 to 5 have no overtime.

The headline excludes several things that can matter.

• Payment Plus at £23 an hour is only for specific operational duties and for hours outside your roster; it is not guaranteed and is not pensionable.
• Market supplements apply only at listed prisons.
• London differentials apply only in London.
• There is no separate overtime for Bands 3 to 5.
• The figures are before tax, National Insurance, pension and any student loan.