News Room

Please find attached NEC minutes for the 12^th November 2025 for your information.

The Annual Conference for 2026 is scheduled to be held on the above dates at the Welcome Building, Eastbourne and will be THREE days duration.

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. 

As part of the POA International work which has been approved by Annual Conference, Cuba solidarity have invited the POA to send young trade unionists to Cuba May Day in 2026.

Researchers from the University of Bath and UCL are conducting a study exploring the experiences of prison staff who have experienced challenging or distressing experiences at work.

Please find attached NEC minutes for the 22^nd October 2025 for your information.

Please find enclosed a copy of the POA Written Pay Submissions covering Public Sector Prisons in England and Wales for 2026/27. The remit group covers all POA members from Bands 2-5 and managers at grades 7-12.

We have just returned from our annual conference last week in Peebles, and it was a very successful and interesting event, with an agenda of 106 motions to debate and form policy on.

The POA has recently completed a comprehensive survey of all members across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland regarding the issue of retirement age. Our colleagues in Scotland were ahead of us, having completed their survey earlier in the year.