Taxpayers landed with £8.3M bill as councils gag potential whistleblowers

A Sunday Post investigation has revealed town hall chiefs handed out at least £8.3 million as part of deals to keep workers quiet when they leave their jobs.

The so-called settlement agreements see workers handed an increased pay-off on the condition they don’t take their former employers to a tribunal or talk about them in a bad light.

Critics claim they create a climate of fear of speaking out and also waste cash at a time public-sector finances are under severe pressure.

But councils argue they are often built into large redundancy programmes to stop former employees trying to come back for more money.

Eben Wilson, of campaign group Taxpayer Scotland, said: “It’s not right that councils are still using these payments to protect themselves.

“Council taxpayers are in essence the shareholders of the collective services that councils provide.

“Officials need to be totally transparent in their operations and if that means being honest about mistakes and other failings then so be it.”

The Sunday Post sent freedom of information requests to all 32 councils across Scotland.

We asked how many staff had been handed settlement agreements between 2010/11 and 2014/15 – and how much the deals were worth. Only 20 councils responded in full but their responses disclosed £8.3m was paid out to buy the silence of 748 employees.

The biggest-spending local authority was Dundee, which signed agreements with 247 employees over five years and paid them almost £2.2m — equivalent to £8,800 each.

Clackmannanshire was the second-biggest spender with £1.9m shared among 97 staff.

Shetland Islands Council spent £841,593 over five years on deals for just 37 staff — equivalent to £22,756 each.

Glasgow shelled out £802,906 on agreements for 107 workers, while North Ayrshire spent £748,768 on 119 deals and Stirling spent £402,787 on 21 agreements. However, 12 councils refused the request or failed to provide a full response, often citing data protection laws, or claiming they didn’t know how much had been paid.

Astonishingly, despite the eye-watering amounts of taxpayers’ cash involved, Aberdeen said it would be “contrary to the public interest” to even say whether it held the information.

It means the true scale of the hush money payouts is likely to be far higher.

If the payout figures were extrapolated across all 32 councils, it’s estimated as much as £15.6m was shared among 1,400 gagged staff.

Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said he was aghast at the sums paid to buy workers’ silence.

He added: “We are supposed to be living in a time of increased transparency when it comes to public services.There is particular concern just now among people about the treatment of whistleblowers across all services.”

Last year a report by the UK Government’s Public Accounts Committee found there had been a “worrying lack of proper accountability and oversight around the use of compromise agreements by the public sector”.

It cited a damning National Audit Office report which found 98% of public-sector compromise agreements it reviewed contained draconian “confidentiality clauses” which force the employee
to keep quiet about the facts surrounding their departure.

Labour MP Margaret Hodge said it was clear public-sector workers were being “gagged” to stop them revealing malpractice.

In Scotland, there is a “presumption against the use” of settlement agreements in the NHS.

But there is no such guidance for local authorities.

This is despite council whistleblowers playing a vital role in exposing a number of public-interest scandals.

They include the repairs scandal in Edinburgh which saw two men jailed for taking bribes to influence the granting of contracts to a property maintenance firm.

A spokesman for CoSLA, the council umbrella group, said settlement agreement payouts worked both ways, by offering protection to workers as well as employers.

He said: “Authorities use settlement agreements in particular circumstances where, by mutual consent, the employee will leave the organisation.

“It is agreed without prejudice to the normal legal rights of the individual.

“It effectively concludes the working relationship by closing off any potential outstanding issues and ensures the departure from the organisation is without subsequent employment tribunal, grievance or any other claims which might, potentially, have cost implications for the council and by extension the public purse.

“It should also be noted that such agreements offer protection to both the employee and the employer and are not a one-sided arrangement.”

A Dundee Council spokesperson said it used settlement agreements as part of its agreed policy for voluntary early retirement and voluntary redundancy.

He added: “As part of that policy, individuals receive independent legal advice prior to signing the agreement.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said individual councils were responsible for issues regarding staff employment.

He said: “Local authorities are under a legal duty to use resources as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“Local authorities are independent of central government and as employers are responsible for issues regarding staff employment which is why the Scottish Government’s arrangements relating to settlement agreements do not apply and it is a matter for each local authority.”

Councillors ‘must be allowed to speak out’

A WHISTLEBLOWING campaigner has reacted with fury at The Sunday Post’s findings and demanded gagging deals be banned.

Pete Gregson, 58, a former regeneration project manager at Edinburgh Council, became locked in a dispute with bosses after be broke ranks to speak out about the proposed closure of a secondary school.

He has since left the council and campaigns to improve the rights of whistle-blowers, as well as increase transparency and accountability in local government.

“They should not be allowed,” he blasted.

“They should be made illegal. People get away with it, but I think it’s wrong.”

The dad-of-two believes gagging deals have become so widespread because elected councillors are not permitted to have a say on staffing.

He added: “I would vote for any party that allows the councillors’ code of conduct to change so elected members can get involved in staffing issues.

“If people want to change things they should be writing to their MSPs now.”

Prevented from talking about teacher’s death

COLLEAGUES of a teacher murdered by a pupil signed gagging clauses to leave the school quietly, it has been claimed.

Ann Maguire, 61, was stabbed to death by 15-year-old Will Cornick, at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds, during a lesson in 2014.

Cornick was convicted of murder and detained for at least 20 years but the Spanish teacher’s family say they have been left in the dark about the circumstances of her death.

Last week it was claimed more than a dozen teachers left the school months after the murder and a number were “paid thousands of pounds” under severance agreements, which included confidentiality clauses, preventing them speaking out.

The victim’s husband Don Maguire, 64, claimed he had been met with a wall of silence from Leeds City Council, the school and church.

Corpus Christi head teacher Steve Mort said no staff leaving after April 2014 signed a confidentiality agreement and Leeds City Council said it had “responded positively” to requests for information.

Meanwhile, in 2013 it was revealed councils south of the Border had spent £262 million on gagging clauses for departing staff over six years.