Police given file related to £1m council pay-outs

An internal inquiry found "unlawful" exit payments were made to senior council staff

A “substantial file” relating to exit payments to managers at Northumberland County Council has been handed to police, the authority's lawyer has said.

Monitoring officer Stephen Gerrard updated the council’s audit committee on Wednesday.

It comes after it was confirmed in November that a long-running review over allegedly "unlawful" redundancy payments would be referred to Northumbria Police.

The force confirmed it had received a report from the council.

In July six pay-outs granted to former council officers, amounting to more than £1m, were deemed "unlawful" by its finance chief.

An internal investigation found the payments between May 2017 and May 2022 did not have the proper authorisation from councillors.

At the time it was made clear that there was a difference between “unlawful” and “illegal”, in that the payments would have been considered lawful had they gone through the proper processes, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The meeting was updated after the Conservative-led council's former leader, Peter Jackson, asked for an update.

“Papers have been referred to the police,” Mr Gerrard said.

“We have referred a substantial file to the police for consideration.”

He told the meeting it would be "inappropriate” to elaborate any further.

A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we received correspondence from Northumberland County Council on 25 January.

"We are currently reviewing that material.”