Call for annual report on exit payouts at Northumberland County Council following £1 million scandal

A councillor in Northumberland has called for an annual report on big-money exit payouts made to council officers after the local authority was caught up in a £1 million controversy.

Northumberland County Council was found to have made six payouts to officers between 2017 and 2022 totalling more than £1 million that did not have the proper authorisation from councillors.

A file on the subsequent internal investigation was handed to Northumbria Police in February, but by August officers had concluded that the threshold for criminal activity had not been met. The council's top lawyer suggested that an error in the council's pay policy had been responsible for the error - and that those errors had now been corrected.

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Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of the council's audit committee, Coun Nick Oliver called for an annual report into any exit payments and recruitment processes that met the threshold for council approval to come before the committee. He felt this would ensure the correct processes were being followed.

Coun Oliver said: "I'm aware processes are being followed and recruitment and redundancy payments go through the correct committees - but we need robust monitoring. I just want a summary that says this number of people have been hired, this number of redundancies have been made and the proper processes have been followed. The issue we had previously was processes were overridden.

"This would be someone putting it down on a piece of paper that proves policies have not been overridden. I think that would add to it."

The council's head of finance, Jan Willis, clarified the request. She said: "I think what Coun Oliver is suggesting is, every year this committee receives a report providing the assurance that the provisions set out in the pay policy document around appointments and exit payments are complied with."

Coun Oliver replied: "That sums it up perfectly."

The council's head of internal audit, Kevin McDonald, said the report would be built into his department's programme of work - but added it would likely be added to an existing report rather than an entirely separate one.