News Room

Prison Officers and those working in Operational Support Grades in England and Wales need an urgent pay rise to help address recruitment and retention problems across the prison estate.

Please find attached NEC minutes for the 8th January 2025 for your information.

Union says Winchester is a damning example of the crisis in the Prison Service

As a result of Assistant General Secretary Mr Mick Pimblett taking up his employed and elected post of Deputy General Secretary this has created a vacancy for an Assistant General Secretary.

A new union-backed cross-party parliamentary campaign launched by Kim Johnson (Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside) to insource prison maintenance is asking POA members to provide descriptions of the disrepair and problematic conditions in their workplaces and the impact this has on their work. 

Watch National Chair Mark Fairhurst give evidence at Justice and Home Affairs Committee Tuesday 14 January 2025

In a blistering evidence session to the House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee Mark Fairhurst, National Chair of the Prison Officers Association told the committee that a major crisis in recruitment and retention is destabilising prisons and endangering staff and prisoners. 

“This is a shocking report that exposes widespread organised criminal activity, serious violence and rampant drugs misuse as commonplace in this Prison.

“This Inspection Report is further evidence of the crisis in the UK’s prisons. The use of drones to deliver drugs and phones into the jail, low morale amongst staff, rising levels of violence, poor and unsanitary conditions and high levels of sickness absence were all identified by inspectors who visited Long Lartin.”