Paddy Scriven is a career Governor who joined the Prison Service as an officer in the early seventies. Serving first at Holloway before transferring to Moor Court in Staffordshire.
She joined the staff course in 1973 and on completion two years later was posted to the West country, joining HMP Leyhill becoming the first Woman Governor Grade to work in an adult male establishment.

She has subsequently worked in prisons accommodating all categories and ages, has completed postings in central training, headquarters and led a security audit team. She was an in charge Governor for eleven years before taking her current position.

Paddy has been a staff representative throughout her career, first as a POA Branch Secretary and later as a branch Secretary of the SCPS who were formerly the representative body for Governor Grades.

She was one of the group of twelve who, determined that Governors should have a professional voice and representation, formed the Prison Governors Association. Paddy served as Finance Officer a post she held until 2007 when she was elected as General Secretary the post she currently holds.

Eoin joined the Prison Service in 1978 having graduated from Queen Mary College, London with a BSc Honours in Biological Sciences. He also completed a Masters degree in criminology from the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge.

He has served in ten prison establishments, twice as Governing Governor, as well as spending four years in Prison Service Headquarters where he was Staff Officer to the Director General and then the manager responsible for development and national roll out of the accredited cognitive skills and sex offender programmes.

He also spent two years on secondment to the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit within the Department for Education and Skills, where as Head of Employer Initiatives he held responsibility for developing national strategies to improve levels of literacy and numeracy within the work force.

Eoin cites Governing of HMP Blantyre House, a resettlement prison in Kent as his personal career highlight. The establishment consistently had the lowest re-conviction rates of any prison in the United Kingdom.  Elements of the pioneering work at Blantyre House on resettlement have now been replicated in many prisons throughout the Service, having a positive impact on both resettlement and reducing reoffending.

He was elected as President of the Prison Governor’s Association in 2010.

Duncan joined the Prison Service in July 1986 and has served at HMP Wandsworth, HMP Wakefield, HMP Holme House, HMP Leeds, Prison Service College – Love Lane, HMP Durham, Prison Service College Aberford Road, and currently training services.

He was elected to the PGA NEC in 2001, and elected as Vice President in 2005. Duncan has received the O’Friel Phoenix (2004) for services to the PGA with personal cases.

He is involved in training area representatives in dealing with personal cases, as well as delivering training to Governors and other members of senior management teams when dealing with code of conduct hearings.

Duncan is married to Karen and has one son, Josh.

He has a keen interest in sport, enjoying horse racing; and is a life long supporter of Leeds United.

He carries out much charity work in his own time, having coordinated charitable during annual conference over the past few years.

Andrea Albutt joined HM Prison Service in 1990 as a Prison Officer.  

Her career has been diverse working in old Victorian Locals, High Security, a Therapeutic Community, a modern Core Local, Open and Women's Prisons. Andrea's career has taken her through every operational grade. 

She governed her first prison in 2004, which was HMP & YOI Low Newton, and followed this with HMP Swansea and is currently Governor of HMP & YOI Eastwood Park. 

She has a particular professional interest in women offenders. Andrea has been on the PGA NEC for just over 3 years.  She was part of the WFM negotiations and last year was elected as a Vice President of the Association.

Shaun Williamson joined the Prison Service in 1992 and has served as a Prison Officer at HMP Wandsworth, HMP Brixton, and HMP Full Sutton, a Senior Officer at HMYOI Deerbolt, and Principal Officer at HMP Full Sutton where he has been since 2001.

Shaun passed the Operational Managers JSAC in 2003 and has served as Operations Governor, Deputy Head of Residence, and Head of Business Change. He has also recently gained a Foundation Degree in Offender Management - Leadership and Management of Custodial Services (2010, and a First Class Honours Degree in Business and Management (2011).

Shaun joined the PGA shortly after passing the JSAC, accepted the role of local PGA rep in 2005, and was elected onto the National Executive Committee in 2007. He has a broad interest in both the trade union and professional services which the association provides.

One of the first pieces of work in which he engaged with was the protracted negotiations in relation to Workforce Modernisation. This took up much of his time and provided a sound insight into the workings of the association. More recently he has been involved in the Workforce Restructure programme which will culminate with the introduction of new management structures and a new Job Evaluation System.

He continues along with other colleagues on the NEC to provide support to members whilst dealing with personal cases, which are on the rise. He has also become a point of contact in relation to questions relating to pay.

During 2010 Shaun started to develop the role of media co-ordinator which includes the development of this website, and in November 2011 commenced as Finance Officer for the Association.

Hello, my name is James Bryant and I am the Office Manager for the Prison Governors' Association.  I have been in my present role since 2003.

I deal with the day-to-day running of the PGA Office, which is based in Clive House in Central London.  I work closely with both the President and General Secretary, who are the only full-time officers of the PGA National Executive Committee.  I am also responsible for sending out correspondence from the office, including regular information bulletins and our quarterly magazine, The Key.

I joined the Prison Service as a Prison Officer at HM Prison Cardiff in 1984. I am currently the Head of Diversity and Equal Opportunities at HM Prison Swansea. I have served at a number of prisons Including Wormwood Scrubs, Whitemoor and Swansea before becoming a Governor Grade in August 2000 at Guys Marsh

I worked at Cleland House in 2001-2002 as part of a bid team before returning to HMP Swansea in October 2002. Once I was settled in my role as Head of Residential I made a conscious decision to apply to join the NEC of the Prison Governors Association in 2004 and was elected and have been an active member ever since.

During my time on the NEC, I have been involved in a number of things. In 2006 I was part of the team that held a parliamentary reception for MP’s in the Houses of Parliament a successful event that raised the profile of the PGA amongst relevant people. 

I regularly attend NEC meetings and quarterly meetings with the Prison Service Management Board and was a member of the team that negotiated on Work Force Modernisation. Throughout negotiations I was adamant that there should be no detriment to any of our members, unfortunately that issue could not be resolved effectively.

One of my additional roles includes the allocation and logging of all personal cases (which are unfortunately on the rise) I also take on personal cases myself  along with other members of the NEC. (This takes up a lot of my own time as we are not full time officials)

I currently work at HMP & YOI Holloway as a functional head.  I joined the service, as a Prison Officer, in May 1987. Prior to joining Holloway I was seconded to the Youth Justice Board for two years as the Head of Prison Development and then as the Head of SLA Management. I have had the following roles: Head of HR, Head of Healthcare, Head of Prisoner Development, Wing Governor, Principal Officer, Senior Officer and PEO. I am also a School Governor and in 2005 I, and colleagues from HMP Pentonville, completed a sponsored cylce from Pentonville to Gibraltar for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

Joined the Prison Service in 1986 on the Assistant Governor Trainee scheme and served for one year at HMP Leicester as a prison officer as part of my training. I have since served in a variety of governor grade roles in HMPs Wormwood Scrubs, Gartree, Nottingham, Glen Parva and more latterly as Deputy Governor at HMP Stocken. My current role is Public Protection Officer for the East Midlands based at Regional Office in Leicester.

I have been a member of the PGA NEC for almost six years and have served as the Membership Secretary for the last two of those years. Prior to this I have been an active member of the PGA in organising the long-running Midland Meeting, which was recognised by the Association by the award of the O'Friel Phoenix for services to the PGA.

I joined the Prison Service in 1987 and was posted to HMP Holloway where I remained for the next 10 years. I was promoted to S.O. in 1993 and accepted level transfer to Foston Hall in 1997 when it re roled to take women prisoners and was quickly promoted to Principal Officer. 

I joined Women & Young People's Group in April 2006, initially as a P.O.; however when I was successful in passing my JSAC, I accepted promotion to substantive operational manager F in February 2007; very quickly joining the PGA. 

I began acting as a local PGA representative whilst at W & YPG, where we had some 19 PGA members and attended my first annual conference in October 2009. An event I was lucky enough to attend with my father who was invited as a retired member. My interest in trade union matters became focussed when the issue of Reserved Rights for HQ staff was raised in February 2010. I saw then first hand; the importance of having the strength of a trade union behind you.

I come from a Prison Service background and my late uncle was one of the founder members of the PGA and served on the NEC until he left the service and my father (long since retired) was also an active PGA member.

My name is Robert Benson and I am the Site Manager of the Maintenance Department at HMP & YOI Onley near Rugby in Warwickshire.

I joined the Prison Service in 1994 after spending 18 ½ years in the Royal Air Force as an Airframe Engineer.

I was locally recruited by HMP Long Lartin and started off my career in the Prison Service on the landings, first on Echo Wing and then moving on to Bravo Wing where I completed 3 years before moving successfully over into the maintenance world towards the end of 1997.

I stayed on maintenance at Long Lartin, or ‘Works’ in old money until 2003 when I was promoted to Senior Trades Officer along with a move to Onley.

I was successful on a Board for the Site Managers post at Onley as part of the Review of the Works Departments, and have spent over 7 years here in total.

I have seen many changes in my 17 years, such as R.O.W.D, and there are many more to come over the horizon, benchmarking, asset reviews and another review of the Estates Management structure.

I have worked in a range of establishments, including Leicester, Moorland, Nottingham, Sudbury and Glen Parva.

I joined Her Majesties Prison Service as a Prison Officer, and have progressed through what was the rank structure  of Prison Officer, Senior Officer, Principal Officer to that of a Governor Grade.

I have work in and managed most areas of an Operational Prison, and I find the day to day interaction with prisoners to be one of the most rewarding aspects of my career, the ever diminishing contact with prisoners is, sadly, a consequence of managerial positions within the Prison Service.

I am passionate about all that we do , and it is difficult to single out any particular high or low points of my career.

Like most people who consider themselves professionals within  the service I am immensely proud of the parts I have played in making prisons more decent and safe for both prisoners and staff.

It dismays me when individuals and outsiders criticise what we do with little or no real insight in to the complexities of our work, I can honestly say that when looking back over the last 20 years, that there has not been one period where continuous improvement has not been on the agenda, whether this be in areas of performance, decency or delivery of value for money.

I am proud to be part of Her Majesties Prison Service, and I aim to use my time on the NEC to ensure we remain in the public sector and not vehicles to make profit for share holders.

Andy Bell joined HM Prison Service (HMPS) in 1992 as an officer at HMP Swaleside in Kent.  In 1995 he became a Principal Officer at Belmarsh High Security prison under the Accelerated Promotion Scheme and also joined the PGA. He has worked variously since in HQ Security Group, HMP Maidstone, HMP Elmley, HQ Drug Strategy Unit, HMP Belmarsh for four years as Deputy Governor and three years as Centre Manager of HM Immigration Removal Centre Dover - prior to being appointed as Governor of HMP Maidstone from December 2011.

In  September 2011 he was grateful to be elected to the NEC, and has already been engaged on behalf of the PGA on organisational restructuring issues outlined in the "Fair and Sustainable" proposals published by NOMS.

Andy is proud to work for HMPS and just as proud of its recent record of consistent year-on-year improved safety, security, decency, cost-effectiveness and overall performance - in no small part due to the resilience and hard work of the PGA membership. He is particularly keen to see public sector prisons survive and thrive as the taxpayers' provider of choice in the face of the competition threat from huge profit-making global private prison corporations.

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Dave Foot - National Executive Committee

Dave joined the prison service in 1991, training at Aberford Road and was posted to HMP Wandsworth, followed by a return to the North West at Risley on the now infamous TAC Unit.

He was promoted to SO at HMP Manchester on it's re-role to a core local and moved as part of the cuts imposed to keep the SLA in 1999. He transferred to HMP Wymott where he was fortunate to be involved in the introduction of the public protection manual and piloted VISOR for the prison service.

During his time at Wymott he became the Security PO and then Acting Head of Operations. He moved to HMP Garth as Operations PO in 2007 and passed the Op Man JSAC shortly after that. He was promoted in situ to Manger F and has managed various residential units since.

Dave is very proud of his career in the service and feels lucky to have gained the experience from differing establishments he hasworked in and the people he has worked with. He has worked in every department available and with all types of prisoner apart from young offenders and juveniles.

Dave has been a member of a Staff Association from day 1 and joined the PGA on promotion in 2007. He is proud to be part of the NEC and hopes that hecan be a valued member of the team and help the NEC secure the future of Prison Governors in these difficult times.

He is a life long Liverpool fan and season ticket holder, and still manges to play football and cricket in local leagues.