Met spends £90m on pay-offs for 2,000 civilian workers

 
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Scotland Yard made redundancy payments of more than £90 million in total to civilian staff in the last two years to cut costs.

More than 2,000 Met employees received compensation in the period as a result of a voluntary exit scheme, including 41 staff who were paid exit packages of between £150,000 and £250,000.

The most senior employee to take voluntary redundancy was the director of information, Ailsa Beaton, who will receive compensation for “loss of office” of £167,230. She left the Met and now works for the Home Office and will receive her package when she steps down.

The Met is trying to save £500 million from its annual £3.6 billion budget over the next three years, to meet Government targets. A further £100 million in cuts was announced in the recent Treasury spending review. Civilian staff are facing the brunt of the cutbacks while the force is also axing the number of police stations in London, including selling off the force HQ.

Kim Hendry, Public and Commercial Services Union representative for the Met, said the result of the job losses was “fewer staff working longer hours which isn’t in the interests of Londoners”.

The latest accounts show 945 people were paid exit packages of £45,010. In March 2010 there were 14,330 civilian staff at the Met compared to 12,166 at the end of June this year.

The figures show that Ms Beaton’s salary — boosted by pensions and redundancy pay — was the highest in Scotland Yard in 2012/13. She received a basic salary of £193,756 plus benefits and pension contributions of £36,528. Her compensation package boosted her total earnings to £397,514.

Forty-seven police officers and senior staff received salaries above £150,000 last year and 222 got more than £100,000. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe received the highest basic pay at £271,374, followed by his deputy, Craig Mackey, who received £227,163.

Four officers with the rank of assistant commissioner — Chris Allison, who masterminded the Olympics security operation; Cressida Dick, in charge of UK anti-terrorism; Mark Rowley, and Simon Byrne — all received salaries ranging from £192,741 to £195,082.

The Met said: “The force is facing extreme challenges with regards to its budget and we are pursuing a broad range of options to both reduce costs and make our services more efficient and effective. Our plans include having more constables than ever before and reducing the number of managers.

“Payments to police staff taking voluntary early departure are set by the Cabinet Office through the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Although this involves an initial outlay, over the longer term this saves a considerable amount of money, so we can deliver more frontline policing.”

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