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The ninth report of the Prison Service Pay Review Body is being published yesterday.

The report makes recommendations on the pay of governing governors and other operational managers, prison officers and related support grades in public sector prisons in England and Wales in 2010.

The recommendations include:

• a 1% consolidated increase to the maximum point of all pay scales for the remit group
• an additional 0.5% for Senior Officers (giving a 1.5% increase in total) to ensure a pay differential which offers a greater incentive for Prison Officers to seek promotion
• a 1% uplift to the Required Hours Addition (RHA), where payable, to Senior Managers D and Managers E to G
• endorsement of proposals to ensure probationers recruited from 1 April 2009 are eligible for their first increment after no more than 15 months
• no changes to the rate of any of the main allowances (for instance, specialist, tornado, payment plus)
• no change to the rates of local pay.

Minister of State Maria Eagle said of the recommendations:

‘The Government greatly values the challenging, demanding and sometimes dangerous work done by prison staff. I confirm that the Government has been able to accept in full the Pay Review Body’s headline award recommendations, effective from 1 April 2010. The award arising from the Pay Review Body’s recommendations is consistent with public sector pay as announced in the 2009 Pre-Budget Report.’

National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Director General Phil Wheatley said:

‘NOMS and its staff continue to perform well under challenging circumstances. I note the Pay Review Body’s recommendations this year and welcome the Government’s decisions to both accept the headline settlement and continue to support our progress on reform of NOMS pay systems and policies. This is challenging but it is in the long term interest of the service and staff that we press ahead with as much structured reform of our pay systems as we can within the budget that is available.

‘We will be keeping the Pay Review Body fully informed over the coming year of the progress we are making on modernisation of our pay and grading structures, in conjunction with the trade unions.’

Ministerial statement

Justice Minister Maria Eagle said, in her statement to Parliament:

‘I can confirm that the headline awards recommended by PSPRB will be accepted in full.

‘The Pay Review Body also recommended, on affordability grounds, that NOMS should not proceed with targeted investment to support pay reform such as the further scale compression.

‘However, after careful consideration we have concluded that the planned targeted investment in pay reforms are both affordable within the current NOMS budget and necessary for achieving long-term efficiency improvements. NOMS will therefore proceed with the measures effective from 1 April 2010.’

Notes to editors

1. This is the ninth report of the Prison Service Pay Review Body.
2. The role of the PSPRB is to provide independent advice on the remuneration of governing governors and other operational managers, prison officers and unified support grades within its remit in the England and Wales Prison Service. The overall number of staff within this remit group at 31 December 2009 was around 35,000.
3. From March 2005, the PSPRB has been chaired by Jerry Cope. Jerry Cope is former Managing Director of the Royal Mail, having joined the corporation in 1973. He chairs the Kingston University Board of Governors and formerly chaired the London Regional Educational Council.
4. The full report is available on the Office of Manpower Economics website.
5. For further information please call the Ministry of Justice Press Office on 020 3334 3536.