What we treat as authoritative, and why.

Primary sources we use

• Pay (England and Wales): Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) reports, Written Ministerial Statements, and the HMPPS Prison and Probation Jobs pay pages, including the list of market supplements.
• Pay (Scotland and Northern Ireland): the Scottish Prison Service and Northern Ireland Prison Service / Department of Justice recruitment pages. Where we have not verified a current figure we say so.
• Pensions: Civil Service Pensions scheme guidance (civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk, administered by Capita since 1 December 2025), Government Actuary's Department factors, and the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022 for the McCloud remedy.
• Tax and National Insurance: published HMRC rates and thresholds for the relevant tax year.
• Discipline and conduct: HMPPS policy frameworks, Acas guidance and Prisons and Probation Ombudsman publications.
• Prison data: GOV.UK establishment pages, the HMPPS monthly population bulletin, HMPPS workforce statistics, HMPPS prison performance ratings and HM Inspectorate of Prisons reports. Each prison page lists its sources and as-at dates.

What we do not treat as a source

Forum posts, social media claims, anonymous "insider" accounts and other unofficial websites are not sources here. They are sometimes useful for spotting something worth checking, but if we cannot trace a figure to an official publication we do not publish it as fact.

When an announcement is ahead of the detail

Awards are often announced as a percentage before every pay point is published. When that happens we say so, and label any calculated figure as an estimate pending the official table.

When sources disagree

If a recommendation, an announcement and the final outcome differ, we report the actual outcome as the figure to plan around and mention the others for context.

When we cannot verify something

We leave it out or say plainly that we could not verify it and tell you who to ask (your establishment, HR, the scheme administrator (Capita) or your representative). Fields we could not source on prison pages are shown as not available rather than estimated.

See also: Editorial policy · Methodology · Corrections policy.