The Communities Secretary has announced plans to scupper 'bumper payoffs' to departing local authority chief executives by repealing the legislation under which they, chief finance officers and monitoring officers can only be dismissed following an investigation by a 'designated independent person' (DIP). But as usual, this is a little more complicated than is seems.

In 1989 a Conservative government brought in a number of measures aimed at combating the influence of left-wing local authorities by depoliticising much of their activity. Two of these measures are important here. First, chief executives (called 'heads of paid service'), chief finance officers and monitoring officers were obliged to make whistleblowing reports on organisational, financial or legal concerns. Second, the head of paid service, then later the other two, were given special statutory employment rights to protect them from political interference.