Ministers have confirmed a new requirement for data on exit payments. All redundancy payments, pension fund strain costs and other special payments made in consequence of termination of employment or loss of office (but excluding payments on death or ill-health retirement) are to be included. This data will be put into the public domain.
This will require data to be provided for 2014-15 to 2020-21 by the end of May. It is expected that a similar data request will be required for subsequent years.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) invite comments on the clarity of the data requirements and the practicality of providing this. These will inform the New Burdens assessment.
Comments should preferably be made via this Online Form, and by Monday 26 April.
Purpose of collecting this data
This data is urgently needed to inform delivery of a key Government objective – to end excessively high exit payments in the public sector. You may be aware that legislation was made last year to control exits across the public sector – the Restriction of Public Sector Exit Payments Regulations 2020. Those regulations were revoked in February as it became clear that there was a risk that it may have unintended consequences which it would be out of line with the Government’s original policy intent.
To deliver Government’s renewed commitment to meet this policy objective fairly and effectively we need to have better data on the number and level of exit payments made in local government. The commitment was first made in the Government’s 2015 election manifesto and Ministers believe that progress on this is well overdue.
Many authorities will already be collecting and publishing this data under the requirements of the Transparency Code. However, the data published under the Code is not always comparable and not easily available for all authorities. The content and purpose of the Code is being reviewed later in the year and the requirements in relation to exit payments will be considered as part of that.