Temporary visa exemption granted for foreign prison officers to avert UK staffing crisis
Exemption applies to officers already in the country and runs through 2026, with a lower salary threshold in place through 2027 as authorities push to recruit domestically
A temporary exemption from the tougher visa rules for foreign prison officers already in the United Kingdom was announced to help prisons avoid a staffing crisis and ensure safe operation. The measure comes as the Ministry of Justice and Home Office seek to stabilize jails that have increasingly relied on overseas recruits.
Under changes introduced in July as part of broader efforts to reduce migration, the minimum salary for a skilled worker visa rose to £41,700, up from £38,700. The exemption applies only to applicants who are already in the country and lasts through the end of 2026, with a lower salary threshold of £33,400 in place until 31 December 2027. The government said the exemption would allow prisons to continue to run safely while a longer-term plan to recruit more officers from the UK is developed.
The exemption comes amid long-standing concerns about staffing levels in English and Welsh prisons. Prisons have increasingly relied on overseas recruits, particularly from Nigeria and Ghana, as a result of a shrinking pool of British applicants. The Prison Officers Association (POA) said the higher wage threshold would have risked losing thousands of overseas recruits and warned of a potential “catastrophic” impact on prison stability. The government framed the move as a pragmatic measure to prevent disruption to essential public-safety operations while it builds a longer-term, domestic recruitment pipeline.
The POA welcomed the exemption, with general secretary Steve Gillan calling it a victory for common sense and noting that it would help to keep prisons stable in the near term. National chairman Mark Fairhurst said members could now “go about their daily lives without the threat of removal from the country.” The Times reported that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had initially resisted granting the exemption, arguing that the focus should be on recruiting British people; Justice Secretary David Lammy told MPs he was in talks with Mahmood about the issue, stressing the importance of meeting demand for prison places while pursuing local recruitment.
A Home Office source said prisons were being treated differently given their importance to public safety and national security, and while they did not suggest Mahmood was opposed to the move, they described the exemption as temporary,“to be followed by efforts to hire more officers from the UK.” A Ministry of Justice source underscored that the exemption would provide “breathing space” to structure a programme to hire more officers domestically. Government spokespeople emphasized that net migration has fallen significantly under the current administration and that public safety remains the first duty of government, including ensuring that jails can operate with experienced staff.
Prisons have been able to sponsor visa applications for overseas recruits since 2023 due to shortages of British applicants. In April, the government disclosed that more than 700 Nigerians had been recruited to work in UK prisons last year, with Nigerian nationals accounting for 29% of applicants and 12% of staff hired in England and Wales in 2024. Nigerians were the most common non-British nationality to apply for or be offered a job in UK prisons in 2024, followed by applicants from Ghana, which had about 140 job offers. The Prison Governors Association has said the surge in West African applications appears to have been driven by word-of-mouth and online promotion within the expatriate Nigerian community, underscoring the depth of the staffing challenge and the appeal of prison work for overseas recruits.
The current policy debate is framed as a balance between maintaining safety in crowded, aging facilities and the government’s broader migration goals. Officials said the temporary exemption is designed to avoid a “catastrophic” reduction in staffing while a long-term strategy to recruit domestic workers is implemented. Critics of the exemption contend that it should not become a precedent for bypassing standard immigration rules; supporters argue that it buys time to stabilize a critical public-service sector facing structural shortages. The situation remains fluid as ministers evaluate the pace and scope of UK-based recruitment to replace overseas staff over the coming years.