NHS Security Officer Pay 2026/27

Last updated: 26 October 2026 · Figures verified against the NHS Employers 2026/27 pay circular.

By the NHS Bands Pay editorial team

What NHS security officers earn in 2026/27: the Band 2 and Band 3 salary ranges, hourly rates, unsocial hours and overtime, London weighting, pension contributions, the violence-reduction side of the job, and the difference between in-house and contracted-out posts.

A hospital never closes, and neither does its need for someone keeping it safe. Wards, emergency departments, entrances, car parks and corridors all need watching, and when a situation turns difficult, the security officer is usually the first person called. The job is part patrol, part customer service and part incident response, and it is done at hours when most of the hospital is asleep. This guide sets out the pay picture in full: the 2026/27 salary at Band 2 and Band 3, the hourly rates, unsocial hours and overtime, London weighting, pension contributions, what the job actually involves day to day, and the position in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. All figures are the England Agenda for Change rates for 2026/27, which include the 3.3% consolidated award effective 1 April 2026.

NHS security officer salary 2026/27

The 2026/27 Agenda for Change rates for NHS security officer posts in England, full-time at 37.5 hours a week, with 2025/26 for comparison:

Source: NHS Employers Agenda for Change pay circular 2026/27 (England, full-time 37.5 hours a week). Hourly rates are annual salary divided by 52.2 weeks and 37.5 hours. The 2026/27 figures include the 3.3% consolidated award effective 1 April 2026.

Band 2 is a single spot rate: it has no pay steps, so a first-day security officer and a security officer with twenty years of service earn the same basic salary full-time. That is the nature of the band, not a quirk of the post. Band 3 covers senior security officers and team leaders, and officers given added responsibility such as control-room supervision, training new starters, or holding a defined area of the site. Band 3 has two pay points in practice for this role: entry at £25,760 and top at £27,476.

Monthly pay before deductions gives a clearer sense of the money. A Band 2 security officer takes £2,106.00 a month in basic pay. At Band 3, monthly basic runs from £2,146.67 at entry to £2,289.67 at top. Those are gross figures, before tax, National Insurance, pension and any student loan deduction. Weekly equivalents follow the same maths: a Band 2 officer earns £484.14 a week, a Band 3 officer at entry earns £493.49 a week, and a Band 3 officer at top earns £526.36 a week, each figure being annual salary divided by 52.2 weeks.

The 2026/27 award is worth knowing in cash terms. The Band 2 spot rate rose from £24,465 to £25,272, an increase of £807 a year. Band 3 entry rose from £24,937 to £25,760, an increase of £823 a year, and Band 3 top rose from £26,598 to £27,476, an increase of £878 a year. For the wider band structure, see our guides to Band 2 pay and Band 3 pay.

Part-time security officers are paid pro rata. A 0.6 whole-time-equivalent Band 2 officer earns 60% of £25,272, which is £15,163.20 a year, and a 0.8 whole-time-equivalent Band 3 officer at top earns 80% of £27,476, which is £21,980.80 a year. For the pro rata maths in detail, see our part-time pay guide.

What NHS security officers do

The security officer's shift is built around patrols, posts and incidents. Patrols cover wards, departments, corridors, stairwells, car parks and the grounds, checking doors, reporting faults, and making sure restricted areas stay restricted. Fixed posts cover entrances, reception desks and the emergency department front door, where the officer is the first face a patient or visitor meets and the person who spots trouble early. Incidents break the pattern: an alarm going off, a patient absconding, a visitor refusing to leave, a theft report, a car park collision, or a call for help from a ward team.

Violence reduction is the part of the job that defines it. Hospitals deal with people at their worst moments: in pain, frightened, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or distressed by bad news. Security officers are trained to de-escalate: to talk a situation down, to create space, to keep staff and other patients safe, and to use physical intervention only as a last resort and within the law. The skill that matters most is rarely strength. It is calm under pressure, clear communication, and the judgement to know when a situation needs a clinical team, the police, or simply time and a quiet word.

The control room is the other half of the job in larger trusts. CCTV monitoring, alarm panels, radio networks, access-control systems, help points and car park barriers all run through it, and the officer on the desk directs patrols to where they are needed. Smaller sites run the same work with fewer people: one officer covering patrols, the front door and the radio at once, which is why lone working procedures and regular check-ins matter. The job also touches the quieter side of hospital life: lost property, key holding, opening and locking buildings, escorting cash and valuables, and supporting major-incident and lockdown procedures when they are tested or used for real.

The distinction from portering is worth making, because the two roles are often confused by applicants. Porters move patients, equipment and supplies around the hospital. Security officers protect people, property and access. The two teams work side by side and share the same Band 2 starting point, but the duties, the training and the incident load are different. For the porter picture, see our guide to NHS porter pay.

Hourly rates, unsocial hours and overtime

Security is a 24-hour service, so unsocial-hours pay makes up a large part of many officers' earnings. Under Agenda for Change Section 2, Band 2 officers receive time plus 41% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 83% for Sundays and bank holidays. On the £12.91 base rate, that is £18.20 an hour for a Saturday or weekday night hour and £23.63 an hour for a Sunday or bank holiday hour. Band 3 officers receive time plus 35% for Saturdays and weekday nights and time plus 69% for Sundays and bank holidays. At Band 3 entry, that is £17.77 and £22.24 an hour, and at Band 3 top, £18.95 and £23.73 an hour.

Overtime above 37.5 hours a week is paid at time and a half for Bands 2 and 3, and at double time on bank holidays. A Band 2 security officer on £12.91 an hour therefore earns £19.37 an hour for weekday overtime and £25.82 an hour for bank holiday overtime. At Band 3 entry, overtime is £19.74 an hour and bank holiday overtime is £26.32, and at Band 3 top, £21.06 and £28.08. Part-time officers are paid at plain time for hours above their contracted hours up to 37.5, with overtime rates only above that threshold. Overtime and unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours. For the full overtime and unsocial rules, see our guide to unsocial hours and overtime pay.

Night work deserves a plain word, because it is where the money and the strain both sit. A Band 2 officer working a run of night shifts earns £18.20 an hour for those hours, against £12.91 in plain time, and a Sunday night hour is paid at the Sunday rate of £23.63. That premium is the reason many officers volunteer for nights and weekends, and it is also why rotas are shared across the team rather than loaded onto the same people every week.

London weighting (HCAS)

Security officers in London trusts receive the High Cost Area Supplement on top of basic pay: 20% in inner London, 15% in outer London and 5% in the fringe zone, each subject to a minimum and a maximum. The inner London minimum is £5,794 and the maximum is £8,746. The outer London minimum is £4,870 and the maximum is £6,137. The fringe minimum is £1,346 and the maximum is £2,270.

At Band 2 the minimums bite in every zone, and worked examples show why. A Band 2 security officer in inner London would get 20% of £25,272, which is £5,054.40, but the inner London minimum is £5,794, so the supplement is lifted to the minimum and the total is £25,272 + £5,794 = £31,066. The same officer in outer London would get 15% of £25,272, which is £3,790.80, lifted to the £4,870 minimum, for a total of £25,272 + £4,870 = £30,142. In the fringe zone, 5% of £25,272 is £1,263.60, lifted to the £1,346 minimum, for a total of £25,272 + £1,346 = £26,618. At Band 3 top, inner London pay is £27,476 + £5,794 = £33,270, because 20% of £27,476 is £5,495.20 and still falls below the minimum. Outer London pay is £27,476 + £4,870 = £32,346, and fringe pay is £27,476 + £1,373.80 = £28,849.80, where the 5% figure sits between the minimum and the maximum and is paid as calculated. For the full zone rules, see our London weighting (HCAS) guide.

Pension contributions

Security officers in the NHS Pension Scheme pay a tiered member contribution based on whole-time equivalent pensionable pay, and the employer contributes a further 23.7% of pensionable pay. The 2026/27 tiers used here are provisional, calculated from the published tier boundaries rather than yet published as final, so treat them as the best current guide and check your payslip against them.

All three security officer pay points fall inside the 6.5% tier, which runs from £13,260 to £28,854, so there is no tier jump inside this role. The employer contribution is substantial: at Band 2, the employer pays 23.7% of £25,272, which is £5,989.46 a year into the scheme, and at Band 3 top the employer pays £6,511.81 a year. For the full tier table, see our guide to NHS pension contributions.

Security officers who must wear a uniform and receive no laundry service or allowance from their employer can claim an HMRC flat-rate expense for laundering it. The default row is £60 a year, worth £12 a year in tax relief at the 20% rate and £24 at the 40% rate, while the uniformed ancillary staff row is £80 a year, worth £16 or £32. Which row a security post falls under depends on how the role is classed, so check before claiming, and claims can be backdated up to four tax years.

In-house or contracted out: the question to ask first

Not every security officer is directly employed by an NHS trust. Some trusts run security in-house, with officers on Agenda for Change terms and the rates on this page. Others contract security to private facilities-management companies, in which case officers are employed by the contractor and their pay, hours and terms follow the contractor's own contract. The work on the ground can look identical either way, but the payslip may not be.

That difference is the single most important thing to check before applying. Read the job advert for the employer named on it, ask at interview whether the post is in-house or contracted out, and compare the whole package: basic pay, unsocial-hours rates, overtime terms, pension, sick pay and annual leave. Staff transferred between contractors keep their existing terms under TUPE, but new starters join on the contractor's own terms. A contracted-out post can still be a good job, but it should be judged on its own contract, not on the Agenda for Change figures on this page.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Security officer pay outside England follows the same Agenda for Change framework with different awards and, in Scotland, a different working week. Scotland agreed a two-year deal worth 3.75% from 1 April 2026, with a 36-hour week from April 2026, which changes the overtime threshold for Scottish officers to 36 hours. Wales implemented the 3.3% award from 1 April 2026, paid on time, and applies a Real Living Wage floor of £13.45 an hour to the lowest bands, giving a Wales Band 2 spot rate of £26,300 a year. Northern Ireland is different: the 3.3% award was recommended but had not been implemented at the time of writing, so Northern Ireland officers should not budget on the uplift until it is confirmed. This guide quotes no Scotland or Wales Band 3 figures, because the data file holds only the award terms and the Wales Band 2 floor for those nations, not the full security officer scale, and inventing a scale would break the figures rule this site works to. For the national picture, see our guides to NHS Scotland pay and NHS Wales pay.

Annual leave follows the England Agenda for Change tiers: 27 days plus 8 bank holidays for up to 4 years of service, 29 plus 8 for 5 or more years, and 33 plus 8 for 10 or more years, pro rata for part-time officers. For the leave rules in full, see our annual leave guide.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an NHS security officer earn?

In 2026/27, an NHS security officer in England typically earns £25,272 a year at Band 2, or £25,760 to £27,476 a year at Band 3, for a full-time 37.5-hour week under Agenda for Change. Senior security officers and team leaders sit at Band 3, while frontline officers sit at Band 2. London weighting, unsocial-hours enhancements and overtime can lift take-home pay well above basic salary.

What band is an NHS security officer?

Most NHS security officer posts sit at Band 2, the Agenda for Change entry band, which pays a single spot rate with no pay steps. Senior security officers, team leaders and officers with added responsibility, such as control-room supervision or training duties, sit at Band 3. The band follows the job evaluation of the post, not the title alone, so two trusts can band similar-looking posts differently.

What does an NHS security officer do?

An NHS security officer keeps a hospital safe and running: patrolling wards and departments, staffing entrances and reception areas, responding to alarms and incidents, managing access to restricted areas, supporting staff and patients during difficult situations, and working with police and clinical teams when an incident escalates. The work also covers car parks, help points, CCTV and control-room monitoring, lost property, and the lock-up and opening of buildings. Violence reduction is a central part of the role: security officers are often the first people called when a patient, visitor or member of the public becomes aggressive, and they are trained to calm situations down rather than escalate them.

What is the hourly rate for an NHS security officer?

In 2026/27, the Band 2 hourly rate in England is £12.91. At Band 3, the hourly rates are £13.16 at entry and £14.04 at top. Hourly rates are annual salary divided by 52.2 weeks and 37.5 hours. In Wales, the Band 2 rate is £13.44 an hour (£26,300 a year) under the Real Living Wage floor.

Do NHS security officers get extra pay for nights and weekends?

Yes. Under Agenda for Change Section 2, Band 2 security officers receive time plus 41% for Saturdays and weekday nights (8pm to 6am) and time plus 83% for Sundays and bank holidays, which is £18.20 and £23.63 an hour on the £12.91 base rate. Band 3 officers receive time plus 35% for Saturdays and weekday nights and time plus 69% for Sundays and bank holidays, which is £17.77 to £18.95 and £22.24 to £23.73 an hour.

Do NHS security officers get overtime pay?

Yes. Overtime above 37.5 hours a week is paid at time and a half for Bands 1 to 7, and at double time on bank holidays. A Band 2 security officer on £12.91 an hour therefore earns £19.37 an hour for weekday overtime and £25.82 an hour for bank holiday overtime. At Band 3 top, the rates are £21.06 and £28.08 an hour. Overtime and unsocial-hours enhancement cannot both be claimed for the same hours.

What is the security officer salary in London with HCAS?

With High Cost Area Supplement, a Band 2 security officer in England earns £31,066 in inner London (£25,272 + £5,794 minimum HCAS), £30,142 in outer London (£25,272 + £4,870) and £26,618 in the fringe zone (£25,272 + £1,346). At Band 3 top, the totals are £33,270 inner, £32,346 outer and £28,850 fringe. The percentage-based calculation falls below the HCAS minimums at Band 2, so officers receive the minimum payment in each zone.

Is an NHS security officer employed by the NHS or a contractor?

It depends on the trust. Some security officers are directly employed by an NHS trust on Agenda for Change terms, and this guide quotes those rates. Other trusts contract security services to private facilities-management companies, in which case officers are employed by the contractor and their pay follows the contractor's own terms, not necessarily the Agenda for Change rates on this page. When applying, check which employer is named in the job advert, and ask whether the post is in-house or contracted out.