Suspended council workers have been paid thousands of pounds while suspended from work a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

In one case the FOI found an education officer has paid £140,000 while suspended for more than two years.

Only two thirds of the authorities responded to the FOI requests and many did not include schools, so the figure is likely to be much higher.

The London Evening Standard report: 

A London council has paid a senior education officer nearly £140,000 not to work since being suspended  two and a half years ago, the Standard can reveal.

Harrow has been paying the wages of the employee — who is on more than £50,000 a year — for nearly 1,000 days while colleagues carry out an investigation into alleged misconduct relating to child protection.

The officer is one of more than 150 council staff in the capital being paid a full salary while suspended. An investigation by the Standard revealed that London’s 33 local authorities have paid out more than £1.3 million since April on the wages of suspended staff.

You can read the full story here. 

I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.