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Westminster Council 'paying for silence' as stats show it has spent £1.6 million on gagging orders in four years

WESTMINSTER Council stands accused of “paying for silence” after spending nearly £1.6 million on gagging orders in the past four years.

Information obtained by the Left Foot Forward website has revealed that the Conservative council has spent millions of taxpayers’ money on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) every year from 2014 onwards.

NDAs are contracts between employers and individuals or organisations in which it is mutually agreed that confidential or sensitive information will not be disclosed, often in exchange for financial reward.

As a comparison, the House of Commons has spent £2.4m in the past five years on “gagging orders” for 53 former employees, which has met with robust criticism.

The result of this is that Westminster Council, widely perceived to be one of the few remaining Tory bastions in London, is being criticised for “paying for silence.”

The revelation has led to Maria Miller, who chairs the women’s and equalities select committee, calling for a “clean-up” of NDAs across the board.

Unite regional officer Onay Kasab labelled this a “classic case” of where transparency is needed to stop an “unseemly process” spreading across the country.

“In redundancy cases, it stops staff speaking out about the impact of job losses on services [when this would be] in the public interest.

“In cases involving bullying, sexual or racial harassment, it means that employers can sweep the issue under the carpet without dealing with ‘rogue’ managers or institutional problems.

“Often, the member of staff will feel that they have no choice but to sign.”

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