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05
Mar
Combined authority refuses to reveal former director's redundancy payment after freedom of information request
York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority has refused to reveal a redundancy payment for one of its senior directors following a freedom of information request.
Simon Dennis, who was corporate director for policing, fire and crime on a salary of £100,950, left the authority on January 1 this year.
Mr Dennis was previously chief executive of the Office of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, a position he held since 2021.
However, his role changed after the commissioner’s powers were transferred to the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire in May 2024 and the Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning was formed.
In January, Rachel Antonelli, head of legal and monitoring officer at the combined authority, told a North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting that Mr Dennis had requested voluntary redundancy from the combined authority.
At the time, the combined authority declined to reveal the figure which was paid to the former director to the Stray Ferret.
A spokesperson for the publicly-funded authority said it was a “confidential staffing matter” and that the former director’s request was agreed to “as an efficiency saving”.
Now, the combined authority has refused to reveal the figure for a second time.
The Stray Ferret submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act asking for the amount in full which was paid to Mr Dennis.
Officials confirmed that the authority held the information, but added that the information was exempt from disclosure because it “would breach one or more data protection principles”.
The response added:
In this case we consider that disclosure would breach the first principle, namely that personal information must be processed lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner in relation to the data subject.
In this case we consider that the disclosure would be unfair and none of the conditions for processing, listed in Articles 6 and 9 of the UK GDPR, would be met.
The Stray Ferret intends to request an internal review of the response we we believe the public interest in disclosure outweighs the reasons given for the exemption.
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