Basic, Standard and Enhanced are the three levels of the incentive scheme every prison in England and Wales runs. The level does not hand out phone minutes. What it changes is money: how much private cash the person can access in a week, and which earnable incentives they hold. Under the HMPPS Incentives Policy Framework, reissued 1 April 2025, the central weekly private cash limits are £30.25 for someone unconvicted and £6.00 for someone convicted on Basic, £66.50 and £21.75 on Standard, and £72.50 and £36.25 on Enhanced. Because the person you are calling pays for every call from their own credit, that ceiling is the practical limit on what can go towards talking to you. Governors design their own local schemes, so how this works at one prison is not how it works at the next. If the money side of this is frightening, the Prisoners' Families Helpline is free on 0808 808 2003.
What are Basic, Standard and Enhanced levels in prison?
They are levels on a scheme that ties what someone holds to how they behave and engage. The national policy does not leave the content of that scheme entirely open. It sets out six things that every local scheme has to include.
The HMPPS Incentives Policy Framework (reissued 1 April 2025) states at §5.35 that "the following 6 designated earnable incentives must be included in local incentive schemes… Access to private cash; Eligibility to earn higher rates of pay; Access to in-cell television; Opportunity to wear own clothes; Additional time out of cell; Extra and improved visits."
Read that list again and notice what is not on it. There is no entry for phone calls. Calls are not one of the earnable incentives the policy names, so the level does not grant or remove them. The connection to your calls is indirect and it runs entirely through money: two of those six items, access to private cash and eligibility to earn higher rates of pay, decide how much there is to spend in the first place. Everything that gets spent on the phone comes out of that.
Who decides someone's incentive level?
The prison does. The framework is national, the scheme is local, and the policy is explicit about it: "Governors must design their local incentives schemes according to what they understand incentivises their population and the facilities and opportunities available at their prison" (§5.34).
That single sentence explains most of the confusion families run into. Someone on a forum describes what Enhanced got their son at one establishment, you assume it applies at yours, and it does not. What counts as engagement, how a level is reviewed and how quickly a decision is taken are set by the prison your partner is actually in. The one thing that does travel is the money ceiling, because that sits in the national policy rather than the local scheme.
How much can someone spend each week at each level?
The limits below are the central weekly private cash figures in §5.36 of the same framework, split between someone unconvicted and someone convicted. They are ceilings, not allowances — nobody is handed this money.
| Incentive level | Unconvicted, per week | Convicted, per week |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | £30.25 | £6.00 |
| Standard | £66.50 | £21.75 |
| Enhanced | £72.50 | £36.25 |
| Above Enhanced | Capped at the Enhanced figure | Capped at the Enhanced figure |
That last row catches people out. Some governors run a level above Enhanced, and where they do, the policy says they "may grant prisoners access to private cash up to the Enhanced level only" (§5.37). Whatever else a higher level brings, it does not bring more private cash.
The gap that matters most is the one at the bottom. For someone convicted, Basic caps private cash at £6.00 a week against £21.75 on Standard. Money earned through work sits alongside this, and how prison pay works is worth reading separately, because at Basic the wage often carries more of the weekly total than the private cash does.
If the drop has already happened and the household is struggling with it, the Prisoners' Families Helpline is free and national on 0808 808 2003, and Pact, the charity that runs it, can be reached on 020 7735 9535. They deal with the money side of a sentence every day and cost nothing to ring.
When £6.00 has to cover a week, what the credit buys per minute stops being a detail.
Can someone be moved down to Basic for something small?
The honest answer is that the threshold is not set nationally, so it cannot be answered nationally. The policy hands the design of the scheme to the governor, which means the behaviour that triggers a review at one prison may be handled differently at another. Anyone telling you there is a fixed national list of what puts someone on Basic is guessing.
What is fixed is the consequence. A move to Basic takes a convicted person's weekly private cash ceiling to £6.00, and no local scheme can raise that.
How long does it take to move back up a level?
There is no dated national figure to give you here, and rather than repeat a number from a forum, it is better to say plainly that reviews are run locally by the prison under its own scheme. Ask the wing staff or the offender management unit what the review looks like at that establishment and when the next one falls.
In the meantime, plan around the lower ceiling rather than the one you hope returns. Knowing when they can use the phone helps here, because a call placed in a quiet slot is a call that does not get cut short by a queue behind them.
Does the level change how in-cell privileges like TV work?
Yes, and that is the part most families picture first. Access to in-cell television is one of the six designated earnable incentives, alongside wearing own clothes, additional time out of cell, and extra and improved visits. Those move with the level in the way the local scheme sets out.
Calls sit outside that list. Nobody switches the phone off because someone is on Basic. The phone stays there, the credit is simply thinner.
Can anything else stretch the money at Basic?
Only two things move: how much credit there is, and the rate each minute is charged at. The level decides the first, and there is little you can do about it from outside. The second is where a call diversion number comes in.
You take a real 01 or 02 landline number, regulated by Ofcom like any other UK landline, and it forwards to your UK mainland mobile. The person calling you is then charged at the landline rate rather than the mobile rate, so the same credit buys roughly twice as many minutes of the same conversation. Nothing about the call itself changes: it is still made on the prison phone, it is still recorded and monitored.
Be clear about the limits before you spend anything. The number has to be submitted through the prison's normal process by the person inside, and the prison decides. It can refuse. Published HMPPS policy directs prisons to restrict numbers linked to diversion services, so this is not a formality and no one can promise you an outcome. Never leave anything off the form.
What does one number cover?
One number works for any prison in the UK, and the rate does not change by region. A transfer does not break it — the number is yours, not the establishment's. Two people can share the same number if they want to, and the minutes are shared along with it. The area code is a preference and nothing more; it has no effect on price, on quality or on what the prison decides.
There are things it does not do. The number only receives calls. There is no voicemail, no recording on your side, no app and no text messaging, and there is one number per subscription. You cancel any time from your account, and the number stays active to the end of the period you have already paid for.
That holds whether the person inside is on Basic, Standard or Enhanced — the incentive level decides how much credit sits in the account, not what a diverted number costs to run or whether the prison will approve it.
None of this touches the incentive level. Someone on Basic with £6.00 a week still has £6.00 a week. What changes is how far it goes, and what a cheaper number actually saves sets out the arithmetic in minutes rather than promises. These figures are for England and Wales only — Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate contracts at their own rates.
If you are weighing up whether the monthly cost is worth it against a £6.00 week, the numbers are on one page.
Frequently asked questions
Does Enhanced mean more phone calls?
No. The policy links the level to private cash, pay rates and named privileges, not to a number of calls or minutes. What Enhanced changes is the weekly ceiling — £72.50 unconvicted, £36.25 convicted, against £30.25 and £6.00 on Basic — and what that credit is then spent on is up to the person spending it.
What does Basic mean for the money coming in?
For someone convicted, Basic caps access to private cash at £6.00 a week; for someone unconvicted it is £30.25 (HMPPS Incentives Policy Framework, 1 April 2025). Money earned through prison work is separate from that ceiling. Local schemes cannot lift the private cash figure.
Who decides the level at my partner's prison?
The governor designs the local scheme, and the decision is taken inside that establishment. The framework requires schemes to be built around what the prison understands motivates its own population and what facilities it has, which is why the same level looks different at two prisons.
Will a landline number be approved faster if they are on Enhanced?
No. The two are unconnected. Approval of a number is handled through the prison's normal number process and the prison can refuse regardless of level, so treat any promise of approval as a warning sign.
Does the level affect in-cell TV?
Access to in-cell television is one of the six earnable incentives every local scheme must include, so yes, it moves with the level. Own clothes, extra time out of cell and improved visits sit in the same list.
Ring the helpline before you spend anything, then work out the rate.