On 27 May 2026, GOV.UK published a one-page reply from PSPRB Chair Tijs Broeke to Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long. The letter, dated 19 May 2026, states that the review body has concluded its oral evidence sessions and is aiming to submit its 2026 Northern Ireland report in late July. (gov.uk) That matters because the publication is the first formal sign that the 2026 to 2027 pay round has moved from evidence-taking to report drafting. The document applies to operational prison staff in the Northern Ireland Prison Service. (gov.uk)
The response itself is brief, but it does set the immediate timetable. Broeke thanked the Minister for her letter of 5 March 2026 and for attending the oral evidence session on 18 May, and he separately thanked Beverley Wall and her team for attending oral evidence and submitting written material. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) In practical terms, that closes the evidence stage and starts the period in which the Prison Service Pay Review Body prepares its recommendations. No pay figures are set out in this correspondence. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
This is a process update rather than a pay settlement. The GOV.UK publication says only that the letter is the PSPRB response to the activation letter for the 2026 to 2027 round, while the page also makes clear that the Northern Ireland Government will decide when it responds to and publishes the final report. (gov.uk) For prison staff, managers and representative bodies, the immediate significance is therefore procedural. The next milestone is the late-July report, not an announced award, percentage uplift or revised allowance package. That reading is based on the absence of any pay recommendation in the published response letter itself. (gov.uk)
The background was set out in Naomi Long's activation letter of 5 March 2026. In that document, the Justice Minister asked the review body to provide recommendations for the 12-month period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) She also asked the PSPRB to work within its terms of reference, take account of Northern Ireland public sector pay guidance, maintain consistency with wider public sector pay policy and ensure any increases to pay and allowances stayed within the Department of Justice budget for operational prison grades, citing affordability pressures across Northern Ireland departments. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Timing is part of the policy story. In the activation letter, the Minister recorded that the 2024 pay award was implemented in January 2025 and that the 2025 pay award was implemented in August 2025. She added that she hoped the 2026 evidence timetable would allow an earlier settlement. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) That gives the late-July target more than administrative interest. It may leave more room for a quicker ministerial decision than in the previous two rounds, although neither the activation letter nor the response letter guarantees when a final outcome will be approved or published. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The institutional position is also clear from the PSPRB's own GOV.UK description. The body provides independent advice on prison pay, including for Northern Ireland grades, and its reports and recommendations for the Northern Ireland Prison Service are submitted to the Justice Minister and the Director General of the service. (gov.uk) Taken together, the published documents show a tightly defined pay-review process now moving into its reporting phase. For readers outside the system, the plain-English position is straightforward: evidence has been heard, the report is due in late July 2026, and any actual pay decision still depends on what ministers do next. (gov.uk)