Founded 1980
Chair:        
Secretary: 
Treasurer: 

Graham Smith
Jan Thompson
Graham Mumby-Croft


Paul Laxton
Issue 93 Spring 2025
REFLECTIONS ON THE 2025 PGA CONFERENCE

Space does not usually permit me to devote so many pages to the PGA Conference. However, this time round I’ve been able to include both the President’s speech and the disposal of the resolutions. Fifty-six resolutions were submitted, which after some compositing was reduced to fifty-two. Conference was shorter this year for financial reasons, so getting through that amount of business was a big ask, but it was achieved with no resolutions falling victim to the guillotine. The venue, the Nottingham Belfry hotel was agreeable, being close to the motorway and thus avoiding the city centre, but also for its ambience, with the trees in the grounds in full Autumn display.

The number of guest speakers was reduced this year. The Prison Minister’s slot was reduced by a government decision forbidding him to take questions. Lord Timpson did, however, share a breakfast table with a number of delegates, but obviously whatever was said was off the record. You have to worry when a government is running scared so soon during the electoral cycle. Former Director General Amy Reece departed for the Charity sector a few weeks ago after 25 years service, and Phil Copple, another ‘lifer,’ departs shortly. Given that both of them are some way off retirement age, you have to wonder if there is something else the government is not telling us. In their place was Michelle Jarman-Howe, who did take questions, as interim DG until James McEwan takes over. Mr McEwan is a career civil servant with no HMPPS experience. I hope this does not signify a return to the days when the most senior role in the service was closed to prison governors.

Graham Mumby-Croft was unable to take the Chair at this year’s conference due to his wife’s indisposition. Yours truly was Chair of Standing Orders. You may struggle with some of the acronyms that have come into use post-retirement, but some of the subjects will be very familiar. Pay, autonomy, and the role of open prisons are conference staples, along with the ever vexed questions of job evaluation and unequal opportunities. The resolution to expand membership to non-operational grades was roundly defeated, conference voting instead to tackle the Association’s funding crisis via an increase in subscriptions. 

Lastly, HMPPS has found it so difficult to recruit at home that it has been forced to employ migrant labour on Skilled Worker visas to fill prison officer vacancies. (See the resolution on P34). No accommodation is provided and some are sleeping in cars, hardly an incentive to come to the UK legally. To compound the felony, the government has decided to raise the minimum salary requirement for a visa, so Governors will have no choice but to dismiss them, leaving them either to go home or find better paid work. What a way to treat people and so much for joined-up thinking!  


PAUL LAXTON