Prison finder: compare UK prisons by pay, category and region

How to use the prison finder

Start with the filters on the left (or under "Show filters" on a phone). Pick a nation or region to narrow the map, then a functional group, an operator type or a pay zone. The "Market supplement" switch is the quickest way to see where HMPPS pays extra. Choose 37, 39 or 41 hours and the entry or top pay point and every card re-prices instantly, so you can sort by what a Band 3 officer would actually earn at each site.

Tick "Compare" on up to three prisons to open a side-by-side table covering Band 3 pay, supplement, pay zone, operational capacity and population, HMPPS group, operator, region, the date of the latest HMIP report and the 2025/26 HMPPS performance rating. The address bar records your filters and your selection, so the link you copy is your shortlist. Open any prison for its own page with the full pay table, capacity, inspection summary, similar prisons and FAQs.

What the pay figures mean

Pay is the 2026/27 Band 3 prison officer rate from the Prison Service Pay Review Body's Twenty-Fifth Report (Appendix E), effective 1 April 2026. It includes the 20% unsocial hours allowance. Newly appointed officers start on a 37-hour contract and, after training, can choose 39 or 41 hours, which add additional committed hours. There are three Band 3 pay points; progression moves an officer up them, so "entry" and "top" bracket what someone could earn on a given contract.

On top of base pay, some prisons carry a market supplement. HMPPS lists 19 establishments, from £1,500 at Grendon and Spring Hill, Huntercombe and Standford Hill to £3,500 at Bullingdon, Elmley, Swaleside and Woodhill. It is non-pensionable, paid in twelve monthly instalments, and HMPPS says supplements keep their status until at least March 2027 and may be withdrawn. That matters when you compare: a supplement lifts take-home pay but not your pension, and it is not guaranteed forever. Our guide to market supplements explains how they have changed since the 2025 framework and what could end them.

The finder shows gross annual pay. To see monthly take-home after tax, National Insurance and pension, use the pay calculator (each prison page has a link that pre-fills your zone and supplement), and see prison officer pay bands for Bands 2 to 11.

Categories, groups and what they tell you

People often search for "Category A", "Category B" or "open prison" when they really want to know what kind of prison it is. There are two separate ideas. A prisoner's security category (A, B, C or D for adult men; "closed" or "open" for women and young offenders) is decided for each person under the HMPPS Security Categorisation Policy Framework. A functional group is the label HMPPS gives a prison's role in its annual performance ratings. The finder uses the functional group because it is published for each prison; it is not a list of the legal category of everyone inside.

In our data, 14 prisons are in the Open group, and the rest of the England and Wales estate is split between Reception, Category C Trainer, Category C Trainer/Resettlement, Category C Resettlement, Category C Foreign National, Category B, High Security and Female groups. Scottish and Northern Ireland prisons have no HMPPS group, and four establishments (including the temporarily closed Dartmoor and the newly opened Millsike) have none published, so we show none rather than guess. For the full picture read prison categories explained, open prisons explained, women's prisons and the youth custody estate.

Public, private, Scottish and Northern Irish prisons

In England and Wales, 15 prisons are contracted out to private operators (G4S, Serco, Sodexo and Mitie, confirmed from recent inspection reports and contract announcements). Their staff are employed by the operator and are not on the HMPPS bands, so the finder shows "HMPPS pay bands do not apply" rather than a number. The role is generally called a prison custody officer; our guide to custody officer versus prison officer pay covers the differences, and private prisons in the UK lists every one.

Scotland's 17 prisons are run by the Scottish Prison Service (one of them, Addiewell, privately operated under contract) and Northern Ireland's three by the Northern Ireland Prison Service. Each has its own pay deal; see pay in Scotland and pay in Northern Ireland. SPS recruits officers through two routes: from 1 April 2026 Residential Officers start on £37,682 and Operations Officers on £30,789, figures from the SPS careers pages that are not comparable line by line with an HMPPS Band 3 rate because contracts and allowances differ.

How to choose where to apply

Pay is only one input, and within a pay zone it differs only by supplement. A practical approach is to shortlist, then check four things yourself. First, the commute: shift start times and public transport can make a closer prison worth more than a supplement, so test it with the commute cost calculator. Second, the type of establishment: a reception prison, a training prison, a women's prison and an open prison involve different populations; read the functional group and the HMIP report rather than assuming. Third, the latest inspection: the report date and the four healthy-prison outcomes are on each page where we have parsed them, and the HMIP report is linked. Fourth, whether HMPPS is recruiting there now: use the official jobs link on the prison page.

Two caveats. A staffing shortfall against target is context, not a vacancy list. And we deliberately do not describe the culture, facilities or local housing of any prison, because nothing we can verify supports it; talk to serving officers, the establishment's recruitment team and the POA if you can. Then follow the steps in how to become a prison officer and the jobs by region guide.

For serving officers thinking of a transfer

If you already work in the service, the finder helps you price a move. Switch the contract hours to match yours, compare the supplement at your prison with one you are considering, and remember that a supplement may be withdrawn while a pay-zone differential is part of the pay scale. A move from a national-zone prison to an outer London one is worth the zone difference in the table above; a move to a supplement prison is worth the supplement, non-pensionable. Check transfer rules and any local agreements with your establishment and the POA. For planning beyond this, see the Serving Officer Bundle.

Data and limits

The finder covers 143 establishments across 12 geographic regions. Capacity is HMPPS operational capacity at 24 August 2026 (the number a prison can hold taking into account control, security and the proper operation of the regime); three pairs of sites are reported jointly and show the same figure. Inspection dates are the publication dates of the latest HMIP report we found, not the dates inspectors visited. Performance ratings are HMPPS's 2025/26 ratings, which HMPPS warns cannot be compared strictly with earlier years. Private-prison operators come from GOV.UK pages some of which were last updated in 2022, so confirm the current operator before relying on a company name. Browse the same data as pages: the prison directory or by region, for example East Midlands.

The AI helper reads only your filters and the top results and answers from them. You get one free answer on this tool; more needs the candidate bundle. It can be wrong, so check anything important with the establishment or HMPPS. This tool is independent, not affiliated with HMPPS, the Ministry of Justice or the POA, and is not legal or financial advice.