Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2021 to Question 158908, Prison Officers: Pay, what assessment he has made of the length of time required to close the gap between prison officers on modernised / Fair & Sustainable terms and conditions and prison officers on closed-grades terms and conditions.

It is the responsibility of the Home Office and the respective Pay Review Body to reach decision on police officer pay. It is assumed the question is misworded, and the answer is provided on this assumption.

Closing the pay differential between prison officers on modernised / Fair & Sustainable (F&S) terms and conditions and prison officers on closed-grades terms and conditions is dependent on a number of factors including public sector pay policy, affordability and economic factors (as Fair and Sustainable is designed to be responsive to external labour markets), and the recommendations made by the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB). For this reason, it is not possible to commit to a set timescale at which the differential will be closed.

While it is not possible to make progress on closing the gap between prison officers on F&S terms and conditions and prison officers on closed-grades terms and conditions in the context of the current pay pause, this remains a key component of the Department’s pay strategy and will be a focus once the central Government pay pause has been lifted.