Press Releases

The Leaders of the Prison Officer’s Union have slammed UK Government Ministers accusing them of nauseating hypocrisy following the announcement by The Prison Service Pay Review Body that Prison staff will receive a 3.5% pay increase for the coming year.

The ban on Prison Officers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland being able to take industrial action is a breach of their human rights, an influential European Committee has found. 

The Government must improve on its inadequate 3.3% pay rise for NHS staff by putting significant extra funding into long-delayed pay restructure talks or the workforce crisis will continue to grow, Health Unions say.

The POA as one of the 18 Trade Unions representing NHS workers, strongly support NHS Leaders making flexible working the norm to deliver better patient care and help resolve the staffing crisis.

Prison Officers are demanding the same treatment as MPs when it comes to pay. 

The Union Leaders are calling on the UK Labour Government to bring in a 2nd Employment Rights Bill.

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.