PRISONS Minister James Timpson was warned today that the sector would lose 2,500 more front-line staff by the end of 2027 if the government does not address low pay.

Responding to his speech on the first day the Prison Officers’ Association’s (POA) annual conference, the union’s national chairman Mark Fairhurst slammed the lord and businessman for Labour’s “incremental pay schemes” and its failure to increase wages.

Following the minister’s address to delegates, Mr Fairhurst told Lord Timpson: “If you’re standing there thinking ‘3.5 per cent increase is great,’ then I am telling you it’s not.

“When are you going to improve our pay, James? Because I’m telling you now that if you don’t address pay by the end of 2027, you’re going to lose 2,500 staff on the front line.

“We need to get back to what we’ve lost over the last 14 years. Successive governments have given us pay cuts, pay freezes, and just-below-inflation pay cuts.”

He added: “We need to overhaul the pay structure.”

Lord Timpson responded defending what he described as a “pretty good” pay structure, claiming the government would continue “investing in pay and investing in the service as a whole.”

To staff retention threats, the minister said he was “focused on supporting staff” and building an “environment where they can do the job they came into the service to do.”

“We need to have much more solid foundations,” he admitted. “We want people to want to come to work, to be inspired to come to work and to feel safe at work.”

The POA said that prison sector workers’ pay is “at least 12.6 per cent behind the rate of inflation.”