Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
No specific action taken against individuals for making unapproved special severance payments.
Conclusion
We noted that the accounts showed there had been 240 cases where retrospective approval had been sought for special severance payments, and asked NHS England whether there were any consequences for making these payments without the necessary approvals. NHS England said that this was down to “a judgement about how proportionate the response is in each case”. It said that, depending on the sum involved and what had happened, it would “talk to the organisation and make sure that people are spoken to”. We therefore asked whether any action had been taken against anyone for making payments without the proper approval. NHS England did not identify any specific actions beyond reminding individuals of the authorisations required, and that it could not guarantee that this would not happen in future given the size of the NHS.37
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the committee's findings, stating NHS England is redrafting guidance on exit packages and approval mechanisms, to be communicated by end of Summer 2025. This new guidance aims to improve compliance and reduce instances of payments made without the necessary approvals.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Target implementation date: end Summer 2025 6.2 NHS England is currently redrafting the guidance around exit packages and the associated approval mechanisms. This guidance will include instruction on all types of exit packages including voluntary severance, Mutually Agreed Resignation schemes (MARS), compulsory redundancies, and special severance cases. This guidance will be communicated via the regional workforce teams as well as via the NHS England external website. This should have an impact on exits agreed from 2025-26. 6.3 Where instances arise with compliance with the approval mechanism for exit packages, NHSE conducts a lesson-learnt exercise and reiterates the approval rules via several avenues. For example, NHSE directly liaises with the organisations involved to ensure the rules are understood, and through financial control events where NHSE promotes good practice and reminds delegates of the governance arrangements for certain types of transactions. So far for 2024-2025 NHSE has seen fewer instances of non-compliance, but the final assurance process on this is not fully complete as of May 2025. 6.4 Regarding the future arrangements for exit packages, the oversight mechanism will depend on where the legal powers reside after the integration of NHSE into the future Department of Health and Social Care. NHSE will ensure it is picked up in the transition process.