Updated guidance on public sector exit payments published

The Government has updated its guidance on public sector exit payments today. It includes new provisions dealing with transparency. In particular the guidance states that employers should report the following:

"Summary of special severance payments. This should include department, organisation, total number of payments made, total expenditure, a combined summary of lessons learned and how these have been applied. 

A detailed breakdown including the grade of the recipient, reason for exit, the value of each payment including contractual and non-contractual elements, total payment cost, and if the payment was within the delegated limit."

The above is a mandatory reporting requirement, irrespective of the sums paid to employees. 

The guidance also reasserts the position in relation to confidentiality clauses as per the amendments to the Academy Trust Handbook which we saw earlier this month, stating that "Treasury approval is still required if the payment is novel, contentious or repercussive, regardless of value". The guidance provides examples of circumstances which will be considered novel, contentious or repercussive, and states that one such example would be where “the settlement agreement contains a confidentiality clause”. 

Stone King wrote to the Department for Education as soon as these amendments to the Academy Trust Handbook (and the College Financial Handbook) were issued, requesting clarification on a number of aspects of the inclusion of confidentiality provisions into the remit of NCR transactions. We are awaiting a response.  

To read the guidance in full, please see Guidance on Public Sector Exit Payments: Use of Special Severance Payments.