Councils pay out £9,190,075 to their staff while on suspension
WELSH councils have paid more than £9m to staff while they have suspended over the last four years.
Our research also shows the number of days Welsh council staff who have spent the longest time suspended but paid has totalled 11,193 days – the equivalent of more than 30 years.
The figures have been obtained through a Freedom of Information request to every one of Wales’ 22 councils.
They were all asked how much money have they spent in the last four years paying staff who were on suspension and what is the longest time a member of staff has been on paid suspension in the last four years.
However not every council could answer with some saying the information would take so long to gather that they were not obliged to respond. Others said it would break data protection rules to release it.
Some said they did not hold the level of detail required to answer how long they had suspended staff for.
The highest amount paid to suspended staff was by Cardiff council, which is Wales’ biggest authority. The amount paid to staff who were suspended was £1.67m.
A council spokesman said: “The fact that Cardiff council has incurred the highest spend on paid suspensions is not a surprise given that it is the largest local authority in Wales employing over 13,000 staff, which includes schools.
“The information provided includes paid suspensions of school-based staff which represents the major part of the total spend.
“In schools cases will generally be of a complex nature and subject to external investigations followed by decision-making processes by governing bodies.
“It must also be recognised that, where required, there will be instances where the council, or a school, are unable to undertake internal procedures whilst there are external considerations, such as court proceedings.”
Second was Gwynedd, totalling £1,327,117. They said £800,000 of that referred to “police matters”. The longest time a member of staff has been on paid suspension at the authority is four years – the longest in Wales.
The authority employed 5,891 people as of March 31 this year.
When asked for details of the suspensions a spokesman said: “There are circumstances when staff who are subject to a police investigation will need to be suspended, until the police investigation is concluded.
“Over £800,000 of the total £1,327,117 figure relates to two separate cases which were the subject of long-term police investigations.
“One case involved the suspension of two staff for the duration of a police investigation which lasted 12 months and which resulted in the prosecution of both individuals.
“The other case involves the suspension of staff for the duration of a statutory investigation by the police and social services which lasted for three years. This concluded with the CPS deciding not to proceed with any prosecutions. The council is now carrying out its own internal investigation and as a result the individuals remain suspended.”
The lowest amount paid was Flintshire council with £187,447.50.
Caerphilly council, which has paid out thousands to senior staff who were suspended on full pay in 2013 when a police investigation launched, refused to answer.
Authorities provided the length of time of the suspensions in different formats but they have all been calculated to be in days.
ANGLESEY
Spent: £245,135
Longest suspension: 590 days
BLAENAU GWENT
Refused the request, saying: “We do not hold this information as our system does not record this level of detail.”
BRIDGEND Spent: Longest suspension:
£385,000
CAERPHILLY
Refused. The authority said that gathering the information about the amount being paid to suspended staff would take more than the 18 hours they are obliged to give under the Freedom of Information Act
Longest suspension: CARDIFF
552 days 669 days
Spent: £1,679,670
Longest suspension: 836 days
CARMARTHENSHIRE Spent: Longest suspension:
£474,048.27
CEREDIGION
652 days
Spent: “around” £170,000 Longest suspension: 616 days
CONWY Spent: Longest suspension:
£274,454.69
378 days “The longest a staff member has been suspended for is from 25/02/15 to 23/03/16 – 54 weeks. The staff members worked 22.5 hours a week.”
DENBIGHSHIRE Spent: Longest suspension:
£426,101.67
FLINTSHIRE Spent: Longest suspension:
£187,447.50 464 days
Refused saying it is exempt from disclosure as “we are not obliged, under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, to provide information that is the personal information of another person if releasing would contravene any of the provision in the Data Protection Act 2018”.
GWYNEDD Spent: Longest suspension:
£1,327,117
1,460 days Gwynedd council said: “There are circumstances when staff who are subject to a police investigation will need to be suspended from their post.
“Under such circumstances, the paid suspension would remain in place until the police investigation is concluded.
“Over £800,000 of the overall cost relates to specific police cases involving a number of staff members.”
MERTHYR TYDFIL Spent: Longest suspension:
£203,197.72 429 days
MONMOUTHSHIRE
Spent: £417,685.41
Longest suspension: 457 days
NEATH PORT TALBOT Spent: Longest suspension:
£1,012,365
NEWPORT
678 days
Spent: £119,180
Longest suspension: 374 days
POWYS Spent: Longest suspension:
£817,066.12
PEMBROKESHIRE Spent: Longest suspension:
£145,759.88
392 days Pembrokeshire council said they had paid £34,163.71 at a corporate level and £111,596.17 to school staff.
RHONDDA CYNON TAF
Refused both questions, saying: “Unfortunately we are unable to supply the information that you require. This is because the information is not recorded in an easily accessible format, therefore the total costs of providing the information will exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ as stated in the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004”.
SWANSEA Spent:
£752,615.85
Swansea council freely list the information on their website, including a summary of the disciplinary cases. The most recent information is for 2015-16 and includes staff from highways and transportation; waste management; social services; poverty and prevention and corporate building services. The reasons in that year included: criminal conduct out of workplace; falsification of records; alleged theft; breach of internet social network and telephone policy; inappropriate comments on social media; wilful and deliberate failure to adhere to policies and codes of conduct of the councilI. In previous years it has also included suspensions for theft and being under the influence of alcohol. They didn’t provide the number of days the longest suspension had lasted.
TORFAEN Spent: Longest suspension:
£200,885.77
VALE OF GLAMORGAN
Refusal. “For both questions, this information is not maintained on a year-by-year basis and, once staff are removed from suspension, this information is unavailable. Therefore we will not be able to provide information for each year of the last four financial years”.
WREXHAM Spent:
1,167 days 416 days
£522,462,08 Longest suspension: 455 days