A freedom of information request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has found that five local authorities in the Gwent region have paid out £3,244,000 on settlement agreements since 2019.
Gwent Settlement Agreements
In total the five local authorities in Gwent have entered into 227 settlement agreements, in which £3,244,000 was paid out at an average of £14,290.75
Caerphilly County Borough Council
Of the five local authorities, Caerphilly County Borough Council was the most prolific user of settlement agreements, entering into 116 of them since 2019, under which they paid out £1.6 million, with an average pay out of £13,793.10.
Other Gwent Councils
The post 2019 statistics in relation to the other 4 Gwent local authorities were:-
- Newport City Council has entered into 53 settlement agreements, under which £922,000 was paid out at an average of £17,396.23
- Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has signed up to 31 settlement agreements, paying out £393,000 at an average of £12,677.42
- Torfaen Council has entered into 15 settlement agreements, under which it has paid out £258,000 at an average of £17,200.00
- Monmouthshire County Council entered into 12 settlement agreements, paying out £71,000.00 at an average of £5,916.67
The TaxPayers Alliance Report
Between 2016-19, a report by the TaxPayers Alliance found that local authorities entered into 6,980 settlement agreements overall, with £98,059,105,00 paid out in aggregate. The average payout was £14,048.59.
The highest total amount paid out during the years 2016-19 was by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, who paid out £8,552,433.00 in relation to 371 settlement agreements, which was also the highest number of agreements entered into by any one Council. This included a pay out of £195,463.00 to just one particular individual, the highest known individual pay out by a local authority during the 3 period. The average pay out by Stoke-on-Trent City Council was £23,052.38.
The highest average payout during the 3 year period was by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, with an average payout on their agreements of £79,628.00. That Council paid out a total of £398,139.50 on 5 settlement agreements
According to the report by the TaxPayers Alliance, Caerphilly County Borough Council entered into 199 settlement agreements between 2016-19, paying out £2,569,307.49 at an average of £12,911.09. Accordingly, the average payout per settlement agreement by the Council has increased since 2019.
Nevertheless, the combined figures for the 5 Gwent local authorities between 2016-19 was that 322 settlement agreements were entered into, with a combined pay out of £4,880,380.90 at an average of £15,156.46. Accordingly, the combined post 2019 average (£14,290.75) is down.
Comment
Commenting upon the findings from the LDRS report, a representative from Caerphilly County Borough Council stated: "These types of settlement agreements are common practice and are used by many employers to facilitate a mutual termination between an employer and employee. [It is] important to note [that settlement agreements are] only used when a robust business case has been completed to demonstrate their requirement. [They are] designed to minimise the financial impact on the council. [We] continue to carefully monitor the use of such agreements going forward".
Freedom Of Information Requests
The statistics used in the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) and the TayPayers Alliance reports were obtained through the making of freedom of information requests. Furthermore, a substantial number of freedom of information requests have been lodged by the media over the last few years given that considerable amounts of money have been paid out by local authorities on these settlements, a fact that has meant that they have come under growing scrutiny.
Another area that has come under scrutiny in relation to their settlement pay outs and which has been the subject of freedom of information requests, are NHS Trusts, as we highlighted in another recent article
