Payments of up to £2,200 per person for assisting with the Queen’s funeral were among more than £3 million of “bonuses” given to local government officials in London last year, it can be revealed.
A total of 158 staff at the Greater London Authority shared £141,827 in “recognition payments” for working overtime to help organise public events between the Queen’s death on September 8 and her funeral 11 days later.
Amounts ranged from £164 to £2,220, with 80 City Hall staff each receiving £1,000 or more. The GLA said the payments were for undertaking “extra duties to help deliver key aspects of the major ceremonial events surrounding the mourning period and funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth”.
Other payouts include a total of £129,278 awarded to 54 parking staff at Hammersmith and Fulham council in “performance related pay” — an average of almost £2,400 each. Some were given a bonus just for wearing the correct uniform.
The council said the payments to its parking staff were “linked to quality and consistency” and not to the number of parking tickets issued, which is illegal.
A spokesman added: “Officers receive bonuses for good attendance, no spoils and voids, no complaints or plaudits, no equipment loss or damage, health and safety compliance, good presentation and correct uniform and shift adherence (eg working allocated unsocial hours).”
Asked by the Standard whether “good presentation and correct uniform” meant wardens had to be smartly-dressed to receive a bonus, the council spokesman said: “The PRP (performance-related pay) is geared to deployment and shifts.”
Camden paid more than £1.2 million in one-off sums to 1,464 staff under its “reward and recognition scheme” — equal to one or two per cent of their salary. In addition, 674 staff received £40 vouchers, at a cost of almost £27,000.
Haringey paid a bonus of £11,280 and two of £7,809 — the biggest awards reported by any London borough — out of more than 800 payments that totalled £605,000. Wandsworth and Richmond councils gave more than 1,040 staff almost £630,000 in cash bonuses, with 38 staff also receiving almost £15,000 of vouchers.
Kingston paid £74,685 in bonuses to 42 staff. It said the payments were made in “exceptional circumstances” such as where staff had significantly contributed to a project which was beyond the remit of their job, or when filling in for an absent colleague.
Southwark said it had decided in 2021 to axe bonuses. But it made 62 “retention payments” last year, worth a total of £161,423, and also awarded 19 new staff “welcome payments” totalling £34,500. In addition, 75 long service awards were made with vouchers worth a total of £47,700.
Tower Hamlets only made £1,200 of awards to 10 staff, who each received £100 or £200 vouchers. Islington paid £1,310 via its “Epic” (exceptional people of Islington) staff prize voucher scheme. Kensington and Chelsea spent £13,248 on long service awards.
The figures, obtained via freedom of information requests, came as council tax bills in London rose by an average of 6.2 per cent — taking a typical bill to £1,789, up £105 on last year.
Elliot Keck, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which obtained the figures, said: “Londoners have been funding a bumper bonus bill for town hall staff. With taxes soaring to record highs, these handouts will be a kick in the teeth for local taxpayers. Council bosses should keep a lid on these payments.”
In addition, a number of authorities made redundancy payments. City Hall made 14 payouts to departing staff in 2022 — four under £20,000, six up to £40,000 and four up to £80,000. Camden gave more than £727,000 in 40 redundancy payments. Southwark made 28 totalling £495,264. Tower Hamlets paid about £325,000 to 21 redundant staff. Islington spent almost £340,000 to make 25 people redundant. Kingston spent £328,000 on 24 redundancies and Lambeth spent almost £200,000 on 15.
A GLA spokesman said: “The GLA has made a number of modest payments to employees who have undertaken significant extra duties. The largest proportion was made to staff who helped deliver key aspects of the ceremonial events surrounding the mourning period and funeral of the late Queen. This included working across both weekends of the mourning period, late evenings and on the bank holiday of the funeral.”
