Prison Service Pay Review Body (11th Report)

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Tuesday 13th March 2012 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Crispin Blunt)]

The 11th report of the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) (Cm 8300) has been laid before Parliament today. The report makes recommendations for staff within the remit group who earn the full-time equivalent of £21,000 and below, and who are eligible for an increase in 2012-13 under the Government’s announced pay policy for public sector workforces. Copies have been placed in the Vote Office, the Printed Paper Office and the Libraries of both Houses. I am grateful to the Chair and members of the PSPRB for their hard work in producing these recommendations.

The PSPRB key recommendations for 2012 are as follows:

a consolidated increase of £250 to all pay points at or below £21,000, including the first two points on the closed prison officer scale;

endorsement of the introduction of the new bands 2 and 3 as part of the wide-scale reforms to pay systems being introduced across NOMS. Bands 2 and 3 will apply to new prison officer and OSG entrants and existing prison officer 2 and OSG staff who wish to opt into the new bands from 1 April 2012;

an increase of 5% to the hourly rate of the Operation Tornado Emergency Response payment;

all other allowances and payments to be frozen.

The PSPRB’s recommendations will be implemented in full. The cost of the award will be met from within the delegated budget allocation for the National Offender Management Service.