Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the forthcoming increases in annual salaries of (a) bands three to five prison officers, (b) all staff who work in public prisons and (c) all employees of HM Prison and Probation Service.

Figures shared with HM Treasury estimated that the 2017/18 pay award for (a) bands three to five prison officers to be £17.8m. This figure also includes the estimated pay award for band 2 operational prison staff, commonly referred to as Operational Service Grades or OSG’s. If you include the estimated pay award for operational managers (bands seven to eleven) this increases the overall cost for operational staff covered by the remit of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) to £19.1m

When reporting quarterly workforce data, HMPPS reports non-operational staff in one group and does not break down the number working in roles based in either our Headquarters (HQ) or prisons. It is therefore difficult to provide an estimate on the costs of all HMPPS staff working in prisons alone as we don’t disaggregate them from those staff working in HQ. The estimated pay award for all non-operational staff not covered by the remit of the PSPRB and working across the estate including prisons is £9.8m.

The estimated pay award for all employees of HM Prison and Probation Service, including those working in the National Probation Service (NPS) which was estimated at £3.8m, is £32.7m.