More than £1 million in so-called hush money has been given to City Hall staff under deals requiring them to keep quiet about their departures.
The pay-offs are termed “settlement agreements” rather than non-disclosure agreements but prohibit the sharing of “any employment-related issue” that might have resulted in the staff member leaving the Greater London Authority.
A total of 56 settlement agreements have been struck since 2017, at a total cost to the London taxpayer of £1,068,757, according to a freedom of information request.
Of these, 41 staff worked directly or indirectly for Sadiq Khan and 15 for the London Assembly, the cross-party body that scrutinises the mayor and his policies.
One City Hall source said: “It looks like more than £1 million of taxpayers money over the last five years has been used to pay off staff with hush money to stop them talking once they are booted out of here.”
The payments — which average about £18,800 for mayoral employees and nearly £20,000 for the assembly or its “civil service” secretariat — are believed to be in addition to redundancy payments.
By comparison, 48 similar payouts made during Boris Johnson’s second term as mayor, between 2012 and 2016, cost almost £1.9 million.
This included 11 staff who left in a restructuring of the mayor’s office after his first term, between 2008 and 2012, and 12 who left after his second term. The names of the staff involved have not been disclosed.
According to the FOI response, the GLA does not require employees to sign NDAs when leaving — which it defined as an “agreement where the sole purpose is to prevent an individual from making disclosures”.
But it said there were “circumstances where employment is terminated on the grounds of redundancy or in the interests of the efficiency of the service, leading to a settlement agreement”.
The settlement agreements include a clause to prevent the disclosure of its terms. This is to protect the financial information, personal data and details of any employment-related issue that may have given rise to the agreement.
A GLA spokeswoman said: “There are exceptional circumstances where employment is terminated and a settlement is agreed. This does not prevent employees from exercising their right to ‘whistleblow’.”
An allegation of bullying and failing to treat others with respect that was made against a London Assembly member has been dismissed. Monitoring officer Emma Strain ordered an investigation into the claim, made in 2020, against the assembly member. She concluded that there had been no breach of the GLA’s code of conduct.
