Press Releases

The POA welcome the Report of an unannounced Inspection of HMP Whitemoor on 13^th to 23rd October 2025 by the Chief Inspector of Prisons. Overall, this was a positive and encouraging inspection with an improvement on the assessments made when last inspected in 2022.

The union representing Scotland’s 3500 Prison Officers is calling on the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary election to be a turning point for Scotland’s crisis hit prison system. 

Commenting on the outcome of the Report from the House of Commons Justice Committee into “Ending the Cycle of Reoffending” Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the POA said:

Retiring Prison Officers are being left in a state of financial and emotional distress because of the failure of private pension administrators, Capita, to make pension payments on time. 

Today a Ruling was published which retains the use of PAVA incapacitant spray within the Youth Custody Prisons in England and Wales.

Since changes to the salary thresholds were introduced in July 2025 by the Government the Prison Service stood to lose over 2500 overseas recruits, mainly from Nigeria and Ghana.

Responding to the Report on "Ending the Cycle of Re-offending" by the House of Commons Justice Select Committee the General Secretary of the Prison Officers' Association, Steve Gillan said:

The UK’s Prison Officers feel undervalued, stressed, have low morale and are frequently exposed to abuse, violence and aggression in an understaffed and overcrowded system that is failing prisoners and the staff who care for them, according to the results of a survey of the Officers who work on the frontline of the country’s Prisons crisis. 

The results of a survey of the UKs Prison Officers has called for immediate action to address the unjust retirement age of staff working in dangerous, overcrowded and understaffed jails across the UK. 

Commenting on the statement made by David Lammy MP, Secretary of State for Justice, Steve Gillan General Secretary of the Prison Officers' Association said: