Ministry of Justice Pay 2026/27: Salary by Grade and Take-Home
What Ministry of Justice pays at each Civil Service grade in 2026/27, from the published Cabinet Office medians as at 31 March 2026, with take-home after Income Tax, National Insurance and the alpha pension.
What Ministry of Justice pays by grade
MoJ runs courts and tribunals, prisons and probation, which means most of its headcount is operational and a large share of it is on shift patterns rather than in offices.
Cabinet Office publishes a median salary for each responsibility level in each organisation, as at 31 March 2026. That is what people were actually paid on the day, not a band anyone is placed on: pay below the Senior Civil Service is delegated, so the Ministry of Justice sets its own ranges and no national scale exists to print.
| Grade | Ministry of Justice median | vs whole service | Rank of 9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA / AO | £31,990 | +£3,970 | 1 |
| EO | £33,550 | +£1,410 | 2 |
| SEO / HEO | £43,840 | -£90 | 4 |
| Grade 6 / 7 | £65,330 | -£500 | 4 |
| Senior Civil Service | £96,920 | +£1,380 | 3 |
Senior Executive Officer and Higher Executive Officer are published as one combined level, so there is no HEO-only median for Ministry of Justice or for anywhere else. Grade 6 and Grade 7 are combined the same way.
Take-home on those medians
Each median netted through Income Tax, employee National Insurance and the alpha pension contribution due at that salary. alpha is a net pay arrangement: the contribution reduces taxable pay, so it gets full relief at your marginal rate, but National Insurance is charged on the whole gross regardless.
| Grade | Median | alpha | Income Tax | NI | Take-home | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AA / AO | £31,990 | £1,472 (4.6%) | £3,590 | £1,554 | £25,375 | £2,115 |
| EO | £33,550 | £1,543 (4.6%) | £3,887 | £1,678 | £26,441 | £2,203 |
| SEO / HEO | £43,840 | £2,389 (5.45%) | £5,776 | £2,502 | £33,173 | £2,764 |
| Grade 6 / 7 | £65,330 | £4,802 (7.35%) | £11,643 | £3,317 | £45,568 | £3,797 |
| Senior Civil Service | £96,920 | £7,124 (7.35%) | £23,351 | £3,949 | £62,497 | £5,208 |
What the numbers actually say
The Ministry of Justice pays the highest Administrative Assistant and Administrative Officer median of the nine departments here, and it is the one place in this table where the entry grades are not the story of a low floor. Several smaller organisations across the wider Civil Service pay AA/AO more, but among the big departments this is the best-paying place to start.
The step from AA/AO to EO is correspondingly the tightest of the nine: about £1,500 separates the two medians, against four thousand or more in most departments. Prison and court operational grades sit inside these figures, and they carry unsocial hours and shift working that the median does not separate out, which is part of why the floor is higher here than anywhere else.
The departments nearest to it
The three departments closest to Ministry of Justice on the all-grades median. The full nine-department comparison, and the whole-service medians, are on the Civil Service pay page.
| Department | All grades | SEO / HEO | Grade 6 / 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ministry of Justice | £35,530 | £43,840 | £65,330 |
| HMRC | £37,680 | £40,520 | £64,620 |
| DWP | £32,140 | £39,600 | £62,970 |
| Home Office | £39,000 | £46,270 | £68,320 |
The 2026/27 award at Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of Justice sets its own pay award for grades below the Senior Civil Service, inside a Cabinet Office control of 3.5% for 2026/27. That control is a cap on the growth of the department's total remuneration cost, and the guidance is explicit that it "does not confirm the amount that an individual in a department will receive": a department can spread it evenly or target the grades it struggles to fill, and going above it needs HM Treasury ministers to agree.
The medians above are a snapshot taken on 31 March 2026. They already contain whatever this department had paid by that date and nothing after it, and they have deliberately not been uprated by the cap - that would produce our number rather than the published one.
Related
- Civil Service pay 2026/27: every grade, the SCS ranges and all nine departments
- By grade: AO, EO, HEO, SEO, Grade 7, Grade 6
- Civil servant pay and take-home
- Salary calculator for any figure not on this page
Frequently asked questions
Why does MoJ pay AOs more than other departments?
Its AA/AO population is dominated by courts, tribunals and prison operational roles rather than office administration, and those roles are paid on ranges that reflect shift working and recruitment difficulty. The median is of everyone in the grade, so that composition lifts it.
Are prison officers included in these figures?
Prison staff are civil servants, but operational prison grades are paid on the separate HMPPS Fair and Sustainable structure rather than on ordinary departmental grades, and that has its own published scale.
What does an MoJ Grade 7 earn?
The Grade 6/7 median for the department is in the table above. The two grades are published as one level, and Grade 6 sits materially above Grade 7 inside it.