House of Commons spends millions on gagging orders for ex-staff
2 min read
More than £2 million of taxpayers’ money has been spent on gagging orders for former House of Commons staff over the past five years, it has emerged.
New figures revealed that 53 non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) were signed by Commons authorities and ex-employees between 2013 and 2017, with a total cost to the public purse of £2,507,176.
Sky News reported that £916,082 was spent on the NDAs in 2013 alone, with some £317,893 spent in the past year.
All of the NDAs included a confidentiality clause limiting those subject to them from speaking out about their workplace experiences.
The revelations prompted criticism from Maria Miller, the chair of parliament’s cross-party women and equalities select committee.
She told the Press Association that the orders needed to become a “thing of the past”.
“There needs to be as much transparency as there can be as to how this money is being used and why such a relatively large amount of money was needed to deal with severance agreements,” she said.
Ms Miller added: "It can't be the drawing up of the contracts, they wouldn't cost that much to draw up, so it must be the amount of money that's being paid out.
"Salaries in the House of Commons are not enormous so that does seem to be a significant amount of money.
"There needs to be more transparency on why payments such as this are being made in the first place."
But a House of Commons spokesperson said: "Like many other organisations, the House of Commons uses settlement agreements to resolve employment disputes under certain circumstances.
"The House of Commons - which employs around 2,500 members of staff - follows the guidance on settlement agreements provided by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and the Cabinet Office."
The new figures on the controversial gagging orders come amid allegations of widespread bullying and abuse of parliamentary staff in Westminster.
Commons Speaker John Bercow is facing his own claims - which he has strenuously denied - of workplace bullying.
Angus Sinclair, Mr Bercow's former private secretary, said last month that he had been paid £86,250 in 2010 in a deal that required him to sign an NDA limiting his ability to speak out about his experiences with the Speaker.
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