CORNWALL Council spent more than £260,000 on “gagging clauses” for employees leaving the authority.

It has also been revealed that the council has spent more than £25million in redundancy payments since 2011.

The council signed confidentiality clauses in the severance deals of 17 staff in 2017/18 at a cost of £261,606.90. On average each employee received about £15,389.

It was a significant reduction from the previous financial year when the council had gagging deals with 30 staff at a cost of £440,719.33.

The figures were revealed in a freedom of information request submitted to the council. The request also asked whether any of the severance payments were made to staff who had either made a complaint of sexual assault or sexual harassment or had such a complaint made against them. The council revealed that none of the payments had related to such incidents.

Explaining why the council had used the confidentiality clauses it said in a statement: “Settlement agreements can be a cost effective way of resolving complex employment issues. From time to time the council enters into these to protect its interests as an employer and as a provider of public services. Value for money for residents is always a key consideration in reaching such agreements.”

In a separate freedom of information response the council has revealed how many staff have been made redundant and how much money has been paid out in redundancy payments.

This shows that since 2011 Cornwall Council has made 1,775 staff redundant and paid out £25,436,517 in redundancy payments.

Between April 2017 and April 2018 it shows that 102 staff were made redundant and paid a total of £1,553,819.

That was a reduction on the previous year when 150 staff were made redundant and paid £1,829,917.

Figures were also released for previous years – 2015/16 188 staff, cost £3,783,466; 2014/15 519 staff, cost £6,553,476; 2013/14 312 staff, cost £3,479,675; 2012/13 116 staff, cost £2,372,970; 2011/12 388 staff, cost £5,863,194.