94.1 The Council considered the Pay Policy Statement 2021/22, in the light of a report from the Governance Committee (pages 31 to 42).
94.2 Resolved –
(1) That the proposed revisions to the Pay Policy Statement, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be approved; and
(2) That authority be given to the Directors of Law and Assurance and of Human Resources and Organisational Development, in consultation with the Chairman, to finalise the wording of paragraphs 10.1 and 11.1 of the Statement once revised Regulations on any public sector pay cap have been published’.
49.1 The Committee received a report from the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development which set out the annual Statement for submission to the County Council (copy appended to the signed minutes).
49.2 The report was introduced by the Head of Specialist HR Services, who advised that the changes reflected new legislation around caps on severance payments to staff. He advised that the final sentence of paragraph 15.1 of the draft statement should be deleted, as it referred to a reference that had changed in 2021/22.
49.3 The Committee welcomed the draft statement and noted the general cap of £95,000 on severance payments for Council staff. In response to questions about the ability to waive the cap, the Director of Law and Assurance confirmed that it was recommended that the Council should adopt a process to be able to agree to ask the Government to waive to the cap in exceptional circumstances, in line with the provision in the Regulations on this matter.
49.4 In response to a question from Cllr M Jones about whether any payments of over £95,000 had been agreed in the last year, the Director of Law and Assurance agreed to check on this and report back to Cllr M Jones.
49.5 Resolved –
(1) That the proposed revisions to the Pay Policy Statement, as set out in Appendix 1 and with the additional deletion of the final sentence in paragraph 15.1, be endorsed for recommendation to the County Council.
(2) That the arrangements for dealing with any request related to the exit payment cap under the Public Sector Exit Pay Regulations 2020 be endorsed for recommendation to the County Council.