Public vs private prison officer pay 2026: HMPPS, Serco, Sodexo and G4S

You’ve seen two prison jobs near you: one with HMPPS and one at a prison run by Serco, Sodexo or G4S. The job sounds the same, so which pays better? In most cases HMPPS does. A new HMPPS officer earns £34,928 for a 37-hour week. Private prison adverts in 2026 mostly start between about £29,300 and £33,500 for 39 or 40 hours. HMPPS also gives you the alpha pension, which no private operator matches.

Who runs the private prisons

Fourteen prisons in England and Wales are run by private companies under contract to the Ministry of Justice, according to the government’s latest list of contracts:

Frontline staff there are called prison custody officers (PCOs), not prison officers, and the prison is run by a director rather than a governor. The job on the wing is much the same. Each private prison also has an HMPPS controller’s team on site to check the operator meets its contract.

Starting pay compared

HMPPS pays one national rate (higher in London). Private operators set pay prison by prison. Here is starting pay from 2026 job adverts, against HMPPS Band 3 on the national rate:

HMPPS pay includes the 20% unsocial hours allowance, so nights and weekends are already paid for. Where a private advert gives its hours, the hourly rate is between £14.05 and £16.05, against £18.10 at HMPPS. On 41 contracted hours an HMPPS officer earns £39,334, or £18.40 an hour.

Private pay usually rises with service for the first few years. Serco’s Doncaster and Ashfield scale reaches £34,670 after three years or on finishing the PCO portfolio, and its adverts say this will rise to £35,883 from April 2027. Even then it’s for 40 hours, against HMPPS Band 3’s top rate of £36,778 for 37.

London is the exception to watch. Sodexo’s Bronzefield advert offers a base of £35,574.59 plus £3,729.24 London weighting. Compare that with HMPPS’s London prison officer pay rather than the national rate.

What you take home each month

These figures assume a 5% workplace pension for the private jobs, with no student loan, and use 2026/27 tax rates for England:

A new HMPPS officer takes home about £307 a month more than a new Serco officer at Doncaster, for three fewer hours a week. The gap with Sodexo at Peterborough is smaller, about £71 a month, but still for more hours.

The pension gap

This is where the two differ most. HMPPS officers join the Civil Service alpha scheme. Each year it adds 2.32% of your pensionable pay to a pension you’ll get for life, and it rises with inflation. For a new Band 3 officer that’s about £810 a year of pension for every year worked. You pay 4.6% on this salary, before tax.

Private operators offer a workplace pension instead: you and the employer pay into a pot, and what you get later depends on the amount paid in and how it’s invested. Serco advertises up to 6%, matched. On a 5% and 5% scheme the Serco starter would see about £1,154 a year from the employer go into the pot. That pot would need to be very large to buy the guaranteed, inflation-linked income alpha gives. More on how alpha works: civil service pension calculator.

Hours, shifts and working environment

• Hours. HMPPS starts everyone on 37 hours, with the option of 39 or 41. Private adverts are mostly 39 or 40 hours. Both run 24-hour rotas with nights, weekends and bank holidays. See prison officer shifts and career progression.
• Perks. Private operators often add things HMPPS doesn’t, such as free meals, free parking and an on-site gym in Sodexo’s adverts. These are worth something every week, but nothing like the pension difference.
• Buildings. Several private prisons are recent new builds, such as Five Wells (2022) and Fosse Way (2023). Many public prisons are much older, though some new ones are public too.
• Stability. A private prison runs on a fixed-term contract. If the operator fails, the government can step in. HMP Birmingham came back to the public sector in 2019 and Lowdham Grange in August 2024, with staff transferring across.
• Safety and staffing. Conditions vary far more from prison to prison than between public and private. Read the latest HM Inspectorate of Prisons report and Independent Monitoring Board report for the prison you’re considering before you accept.

Career progression

HMPPS has a national structure: Band 3, then Band 4 supervising officer or specialist at £41,328, Band 5 custodial manager, and governor grades. Your band and pay go with you if you move to another public prison. Private operators have their own ladders. G4S, for example, describes a path from PCO to first line manager, operations manager, functional head and director. Moving between operators, or into HMPPS, usually means applying again on the new employer’s terms.

Which job to take

On pay per hour and pension, HMPPS is ahead almost everywhere outside London. A private prison makes sense when it’s much closer to home, when its local rate is high, or when you value the perks and a newer building. Before you decide, compare take-home for the actual hours in each offer, then add the pension difference on top.

Related reading: prison officer starting salary, Payment Plus calculator and prison officer payslip explained.

This is general information. HMPPS pay is from 1 April 2026 for England and Wales. Private pay comes from operators’ 2026 job adverts and can differ by prison and change at any time, so check the current advert. Take-home assumes a 5% workplace pension for private jobs and no student loan.