Prison officer pay

Prison officers in England and Wales start on between £34,928 and £46,031 a year, according to HMPPS. Where you land in that range depends on three things: your hours (37, 39 or 41 a week), your location, and any market supplement paid at your prison. Every figure on the HMPPS page includes a 20% unsocial hours allowance.

Starting pay by location and hours

Prison officers are band 3 in HMPPS grading. You start on a 37-hour contract during initial training, and after training you can move to 39 or 41 hours. The pay figures below come from the HMPPS pay page and include the unsocial hours allowance.

Location	37 hours	39 hours	41 hours
Inner London prisons	£40,876	£43,453	£46,031
Outer London (Belmarsh, Isis)	£38,840	£41,290	£43,739
All other prisons without a supplement	£34,928	£36,816	£39,334

Three outer London prisons (Downview, Feltham and High Down) include a £2,000 market supplement, which makes their figures £2,000 higher than Belmarsh and Isis. The page also lists prisons outside London with supplements built into their figures.

Market supplements

Some prisons pay a market supplement to band 3 officers who are on Fair and Sustainable terms. The rates are £1,500, £2,000, £3,000 and £3,500 a year. For example, Aylesbury has a £3,000 supplement and starts at £37,928 on 37 hours, and Woodhill has £3,500 and starts at £38,428.

HMPPS says these supplements are not part of base salary and are non-pensionable, and that they are paid in 12 monthly instalments. Prisons that have them keep them until at least March 2027, though HMPPS may withdraw them from particular sites. A supplement therefore raises your monthly pay without raising what your pension is built on. Ask at interview whether the prison you are applying to has one and how long it is expected to last.

Hours, overtime and the extra 20%

The 20% unsocial hours allowance is already in the numbers above, so you do not add it again. Moving from 37 to 41 hours is worth £5,155 a year at an inner London prison (£46,031 minus £40,876) and £4,406 at a prison with no supplement. HMPPS also says you can earn more if overtime is available at your prison.

The pay page does not say how pay progresses after the starting point, and it does not describe the shift pattern. The role page says only that no two shifts are the same. Ask the prison for its roster before you accept an offer.

Comparing two offers

The hours option matters as much as the location. A 41-hour contract at a prison with no supplement (£39,334) pays less than a 39-hour contract in inner London (£43,453), and a 39-hour contract at Woodhill (£40,316) pays more than a 37-hour contract at Belmarsh (£38,840). Each extra pair of hours is a trade against time off, and HMPPS lets you choose 39 or 41 hours only after initial training. Cost of living also differs between London and elsewhere, which the headline figures do not show.

Who can apply

HMPPS says no qualifications are needed. It describes the job as physically active and says you will have a medical and fitness assessment, and it lists resilience, thinking on your feet, communication and teamwork as the skills it wants. The prison officer job profile covers training and the application stages.

Pension and tax

The HMPPS page describes the pension only as one of the best in the UK, so Rozile has not given a contribution rate here. Take-home pay depends on your pension contribution, income tax, National Insurance and any student loan. The take-home pay calculator lets you enter the salary for your hours and location.

If you are comparing prison work with other London public sector jobs, the London weighting guide shows how other employers treat it. Police officers are on a separate national scale, set out in the police pay scales guide.