Some 215 public servants have received redundancy or severance pay-offs totalling more than £9.8m in the last six years.

There was 27 conciliated settlement agreements totalling £1,978,144 in 2022-23 alone.

Details were released by the Cabinet Office in response to a Freedom of Information request which asked for the number and the cost of settlement agreements dating back to 2017.

Chairman of the Public Services Commission and Cabinet Office Minister Kate Lord-Brennan said the figures were a matter of concern and the use of such agreements was being reviewed.

The figures include all former government employees whose agreements involved the Office of Human Resources.

They do therefore not include those in the Financial Services Authority, Manx Industrial Relations Service, Manx Utilities or the Isle of Man Post Office.

The pay-offs between April 2017 and December 2022 include those who left their jobs under the government’s Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS) as well as voluntary and compulsory redundancy and severance.

The payments in 2017-18 totalled £1,842,141 to 47 employees. In 2018-19 there were 49 agreements totalling £1,781,883.

The years after there were 44 agreements with payments totalling £2,446,179.86 and 2020-21 there were 33 payments adding up to £1,237,632.

In 2021-22 the number of agreements fell to 15, with payments totalling £514,722 and there were 27 in 2022-23 adding up to a grand total of £1,978,144.

Ms Lord-Brennan said: ‘In any large organisation, redundancy, performance or disciplinary issues will inevitably mean that employers seek to terminate the employment relationship.

‘In some cases this can, and may need, to be achieved by way of a conciliated settlement agreement, meaning that some employees exit the organisation with some financial recompense in order to end the employment and to avoid costly legal claims.

‘Nevertheless, the use of conciliated settlement agreements, and the figures involved over a number of years, has been a matter of concern for me and so we are reviewing the use of these types of arrangement to ensure they are only used in exceptional circumstances.

‘The use of settlement agreements shouldn’t replace appropriate management, conciliation or HR practices, or indeed make up for any lack in these areas over a period of time.’

Ms Lord-Brennan said there must be a consistent and appropriate approach to instil confidence in the process, and in the interests of protecting the public purse.

And she said it was important that settlement agreements are not used where the correct response is to instigate a formal performance management process.

‘This will ensure that all staff are being treated fairly and appraised correctly,’ she said.

The Public Services Commission is actively working on guidance on the use and approval process required for all conciliated settlement agreements.

An operational performance board is being created to ‘bring more rigour to staffing management across government,’ the Minister added.

Conciliated settlement agreements are brokered by an industrial relations officer and typically contain a payment for notice pay, any contractual payment such as untaken holiday pay and often a payment for loss of office.

As at the end of December 2022, the public service employed 10,845 people in the equivalent of 7,331.14 full time roles. The budget for the public service in 2023-24 is £1.2bn.