HEREFORDSHIRE Council’s political leaders are “not required”  to know the details of bullying cases within the authority.

The council has confirmed its stance in a statement issued more than week after the Hereford Times asked for formal responses from former council leader Cllr John Jarvis and current leader Cllr Tony Johnson  as to how much they knew of bullying allegations “hushed up” by secret settlement and severance payments.

The payments were bound by confidentiality clauses meaning little detail can currently be made public.

Cllr Jarvis and Cllr Johnson did not respond in person.

Instead, the council issued a statement that reads:

“Herefordshire Council has a zero tolerance approach to bullying, whether in the work place or towards any external individual or group.  Fortunately, cases of bullying in the council are extremely rare and any allegation would be taken seriously with any substantiated claim resulting in appropriate action being taken.
In regards to any past allegation or investigation, whilst we would not comment on an individual case, such an allegation or investigation relating to a member of staff, both in 2012 and today, would be a matter for the chief executive, the monitoring officer, the head of HR and the relevant service areas senior management to address in line with council HR policies and common law.

There is no requirement for the leader of the council to be made aware of individual case details.  Equally if a member of staff left the council's employment following an investigation, whilst it is likely that the chief executive would inform the leader of such an outcome, financial and exit details in line with council policies would not normally be discussed.”

Council group leaders have said they either had no formal - or informal briefings - on the bullying allegations or related payments made to resolve them in 2012 and 2013 or did not recall being given any indication of circumstances.

Cllr Alan Seldon, former chairman of council’s overview and scrutiny committee has said that, during his term of office, he  had “no hint” from any officer over the allegations or related payments made to resolve them in 2012 and 2013.

Nor could he  recall being given any information on the allegations or the payments by a senior councillor.

As such, the overview and scrutiny committee – intended to function as a watchdog for cabinet decisions taken in either open session or behind closed doors – was never given any opportunity to analyse and question the way the allegations were handled or resolved.

A combined total for the related pay outs is thought to run into six figures.

As reported by the Hereford Times, the council refuses to release even a ballpark figure for the payments and is backed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in refusing to release all but the most basic details of the allegations and resolutions. 

This ruling means  sum spent on settlement and severance payments to resolve allegations said to involve between 10 and 20 staff cannot be confirmed.