Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the cost to her Department was of Ministerial severance payments during each year from 19 December 2019 to 30 May 2024; which Ministers received a severance payment; and how much each Minister received.
Under the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, eligible Ministers who leave office are entitled to a one off payment equivalent to one quarter of their annual salary at the point at which they leave the government.
This applies only where a Minister is under 65 and is not appointed to a ministerial office within three weeks of leaving government.
Individuals may waive the payment to which they are entitled. That is a matter for their personal discretion, but this approach has been taken in the past.
Details of such payments are published in departmental annual reports and accounts, and ministerial salaries are published on GOV.UK. Future disclosures for 2023/24 will be published in due course.