Police given file related to £1m Northumberland County Council pay-outs

Monitoring officer Stephen Gerrard announced the news at a meeting of the council’s audit committee. It comes after it was confirmed in November that the long-running review over allegedly unlawful redundancy payments would be referred to Northumbria Police.

Former council leader Peter Jackson had called for an update on the investigation.

He said: “We asked for a further report back on the legality of exit payments. I did understand that that was part of an issue that involved a referral to the police.

“I think it’s quite important for this committee to monitor what’s happening with that. I’m surprised we haven’t had a report back on that.”

Mr Gerrard replied: “Papers have been referred to the police. We have referred a substantial file to the police for consideration.”

When the monitoring officer refused to elaborate further, Cllr Jackson pressed for further answers. He said a report should be brought before the audit committee “even if it was in private session”.

Mr Gerrard continued: “I have to be careful what I say. I think that would be inappropriate. I will leave it at that.”

Still unhappy with this, Cllr Jackson said: “I just refer you to the terms of reference of this committee. It is within the remit of this committee to consider things like that.”

The meeting’s chairman, Cllr David Towns, said: “We have had an answer from the monitoring officer. I think we can see that is as much as he can say.”

In July last year, six big-money payouts amounting to more than £1m granted to former council officers were deemed ‘unlawful’ by finance chief Jan Willis. An investigation found that a total of £1,068,801.98 that was paid out between May 2017 and May 2022 to a range of top roles did not have the proper authorisation from councillors.

It was made clear that there was a difference between ‘unlawful’ and ‘illegal’, in that the payments would have been considered lawful had they gone through proper processes.

A police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we received correspondence from Northumberland County Council on January 25. We are currently reviewing that material.”