Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s publication entitled Special adviser data releases: numbers and costs, November 2014, published on 18 December 2014, how much of the £8.4 million pay bill for special advisers was made up of severance payments in the 2013-14 financial year.

The Cabinet Office publishes an annual report on special advisers, and far more detail is transparently provided than ever issued under the last Labour Government, and far more than is published by the Labour-led Welsh Government.

As set out in the July 2023 annual report, laid in the House today, special advisers represent just 0.02 per cent of the Civil Service workforce.

Special advisers are classed as temporary civil servants. They receive a severance payment if their appointment automatically ends when their appointing Minister ceases to hold ministerial office. This reflects the lack of any formal notice period. The substantive contractual provisions in the Model Contract are the same as under previous Administrations of all political colours, including the last Labour Government. They also reflect the statutory provisions set out in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, as legislated for under the last Labour Government.

For example, £1 million in then-prices was paid in severance payments in 2007-08 (as per out in 17 November 2008, Official Report, Col. 244W) and £1.8 million in April-May 2010 (as set out in 28 October 2010, Official Report, Col. 18WS).

With regards to the specific questions asked:

• The £7.2 million figure in the 2012-13 annual report includes all salary costs, including severance costs, however the amount relating specifically to severance was not reported.

• No severance was paid in 2013-14.

• The 2015-16 annual report covered the period April 2015 through 13 July 2016, to cover the paybill costs until the end of the David Cameron Administration. The severance figures reported covered this entire period rather than the financial year.

• In 2018-19, £208,000 of severance was paid, as per the annual report.

• In 2019-20, the £2.7million severance figure stated in the annual report is net of repayments.

Given the Rt Hon Member has such an interest in special adviser severance payments, the Labour Party should state how much Short Money, Cranborne Money and Policy Development Grant has been spent on severance payments following multiple changes to Labour Party leaders and the Shadow Cabinet in this time period.