FOI on Compromise Agreements with Senior Officials

I’ve been doing a bit of fishing. On 20th August, Bailiwick Express reported that:

States officials have decided to keep the government’s most senior employee's contract locked behind closed doors, following a request by Express to release it under the Freedom of Information Law. They concluded on Friday that the employment terms of Charlie Parker, whose £250,000 base salary is paid by taxpayers, were ‘personal information’ and should not be made available for public scrutiny. As the first FOI request of its kind, the decision sets a precedent for how future applications for employment details of high-earning senior civil servants will be handled.

They commented:

The news comes as Mr Parker, who is spearheading the largest ever shake-up to the public sector, faces increasing scrutiny over his contract terms. A Ministerial Decision signed off by then Assistant Minister for Population, Senator Paul Routier, took the extraordinary step of handing him full residency rights due to “the consistency of his track-record in delivering change within a number of substantial and relevant organisations.”

One obvious area is whether or not, buried in the print are some kind of “golden handshake” clauses like that invoked by Bill Ogley when he received £546,337.50 – a cool half a million pounds – based on what can only be seen as an escape clause negotiated into his contract, and signed off and known about by Senators Frank Walker and Terry Le Sueur.

It was largely due to Terry Le Sueur’s lax management of the increasing fraught relations between Mr Ogley and Senator Ozouf that the former decided to leave, taking a sizable pot of money with him.

Clearly, it is in the public interest to know what ticking time bombs may be built into Mr Parker’s contract, if anything like that existed, and that was the reason for asking my question, which – as might be expected – got an apparent brush off.

In fact I didn’t ask whether compromise agreements would no longer be issued, which was Jeremy Macon’s question in 2017, I asked whether any were currently in use with any senior staff, including of course, Mr Parker, but not identifying as such who the senior staff were.

In other words, Jeremy Macon was asking whether they would no longer be issued, I was asking if any had been issued. I can see a world of difference between the two questions, but having reviewed my initial question, I can see that it could be made clearer.

It is rather muddled. I had blamed the FOI staff but on reflection, it was my own fault.

I’ll have to ask again and make the difference clearer.

Request

While the information about Charlie Parker's contract of employment is excepted under Data Protection, please confirm that the policy of not having compromise agreements amounting to so called "golden handshakes" in contracts, able to be initiated by any senior staff (as exemplified in the clause in Bill Ogley's contract) are not currently in use in any States contracts with senior officers.

As this was supposed to be a States policy, asking for confirmation in a general question about all senior staff should not be breaking Data Protection, and is also clearly in the public interest, even under GDPR.

Response

This matter was addressed in a States question response last year and a link is provided for your information.

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE STATES EMPLOYMENT BOARD

BY DEPUTY J.M. MAÇON OF ST. SAVIOUR

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 31ST OCTOBER 2017

Question

Did the States Employment Board give an undertaking that compromise agreements would no longer be issued after the previous Chief Executive of the States of Jersey left and, if not, why not?

Answer

The States Employment Board (SEB) has not given an undertaking that compromise agreements would no longer be issued. As was explained in answer to a written question on 17th January 2017, in cases where it is appropriate, the agreed termination of a contract of employment may be accompanied by an associated compromise agreement.

Such agreements are carried out in line with the Utilisation of Compromise Agreements Report issued by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) dated March 2012 and follow up Report dated 5th May 2016.

The 2016 report states – “The ability to negotiate termination of employment within an agreed framework, and therefore the use of compromise agreements, is a vital tool of management, in both the public and private sectors.”