Councils reached 17,000+ settlement agreements in five years: report

Councils in the UK agreed 17,571 settlement deals between 2010 and 2015, with many of those agreements containing confidentiality clauses, it has been reported.

The figures were revealed in response to freedom of information requests made by 5 Live Investigates. Around 70% of local authorities replied.

According to a report by the BBC programme, a total of £226.7m was paid out.

Cardiff Council was said to have issued the most settlement agreements (2,008), making payouts worth £5.5m in total. The local authority was one of a number of councils to tell 5 Live Investigates that it had previously been using settlement agreements as a matter of routine.

Cardiff added that this policy ended in January 2015 - and had been used to protect it from legal claims. Enhanced payments also meant staff were more likely to apply for voluntary redundancy, it said.

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government told the programme that confidentiality clauses should not be used to "stop, stifle or control individuals from speaking out about concerns about their employer".

"There is no excuse for outrageous payoffs at a time when all parts of the public sector should be finding ways to save taxpayers' money," he added.

The Local Government Association insisted that enhanced payments were only made in "extreme circumstances".

"It is also important to note that when calculating payouts, local authorities are one of the most efficient groups in the public sector," it said.