A freedom of information request has revealed that City of York Council has paid out £523,427.00 in relation to 33 settlement agreements that it has entered into with former employees between 2016 – 2020.
£523,427.00 Paid Out On 33 Settlement Agreements
A freedom of information has request found that City of York Council has paid out £523,427.00 in relation to 33 settlement agreements between 2016 – 2020. In the 2019-20 financial year alone, the Council spent £251,471.00 on 10 settlement agreements, and the average pay out on the 33 settlements agreements over the 4 year period was £15,861.42.
Trudy Forster, the head of HR at the City of York Council had stated back in July 2019 that there is a "presumption against NDAs unless a business case is presented that is viable and is then approved by members. And the committee agreed that a system should be introduced to examine any financial settlement deals and legal contracts to make sure taxpayers’ money is spent in a prudent and accountable [way]....City of York Council are aware of the recent Government concerns raised, regarding the use of NDA's and ensure that both HR and legal advice is sought in all situations."
Ms Forster added: "The Council's breakdown in the use of settlement agreements, inclusive of NDA's, year on year shows a reduction in their use over the past 5 years, which is the case in other authorities."
Nevertheless, as stated, for the 2019-20 financial year, £251,471.00 was spent on settlement agreements, a record amount for the Council for any one year in the period that has elapsed since 2012. It beats the £220,323.59 that was paid out in the financial year 2013-14.
Settlement Agreement Pay Outs By Other Councils
Whilst City of York Council have paid out £523,427.00 on 33 settlement agreements between 2016-20, several other Council's have paid out significant sums of money on settlement agreements as well. For instance, Walsall Council have paid out over £430,000.00 on 30 settlement agreements between 2015 – 2018. The largest pay out was £58,603.00, with an average payout across the 30 settlement agreements of £14,485.71.
Moreover, a freedom of information by Leicestershire Live found that Leicester City Council had entered into 36 settlement agreements between 2016-18, which had paid out a total of £531,716.00. The highest pay out was £62,000.00 and the average pay out was £14,769.89. An earlier freedom of information request by Leicestershire Live had also revealed that Leicestershire County Council had entered into 52 settlement agreements with its employees between 2016 and 2018, with a combined pay out of £465,144.44. The highest payment was £48,589.87, and the average pay out was £8,945.09.
Furthermore, a freedom of information request by the Exmouth Journal revealed that Devon County Council had paid out £1,965,370 in relation to 145 settlement agreements between 2013-17. The average pay out across the 145 settlement agreements was £13,554.28.
Hence, compared with Walsall Council, Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, and Devon County Council, the average pay out by City of York Council across the 33 settlement agreements is higher.
TaxPayers Alliance Research Into Local Authority Settlement Agreements
As we highlighted in a recent article, the TaxPayers Alliance recently carried out some research into local authority settlement agreements, which found that 408 local authorities had entered into 6,980 settlement agreements with employees between 2016-19. The total amount paid out under these settlement agreements was £98,059,105,00, with an average payout of £14,048.59. Hence, the average pay out by City of York Council amongst their 33 settlement agreements between 2016-20 of £15,861.42, is £1,812.83 higher than the 408 local authorities looked at by the TaxPayers Alliance. Nevertheless, the City of York Council's average is well below the highest average of the 408 local authorities, that being Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, which had an average of £79,628.00.
In recent times, the amount being paid out by local authorities in relation to settlement agreements has come under growing scrutiny. Hence, there have been a large number of freedom of information requests, and in fact all of the information referred to above, including that relating to the 33 settlement agreements entered into by the City of York Council, has been revealed as a result of freedom of information requests.
