Sedwill interview demonstrates government hypocrisy on exit payments

An interview given by outgoing Civil Service boss Sir Mark Sedwill to Civil Service World, in which he defends his £250k exit payment, exposes the hypocrisy of government plans to cap such payments for ordinary civil servants, Prospect have argued.

The union, which represents thousands of middle grade civil servants, including many with scientific and specialist skills, has been campaigning against government plans to cap civil service exit payments at £95k.

In the interview Sir Mark argues that his payment was “standard” and “If I’d been made redundant, actually it would have been more than that under the terms of the civil service compensation scheme”.

Prospect deputy general secretary Garry Graham said:

“It will not be lost on more junior civil servants that shortly after it was announced that Sir Mark Sedwill was to receive a £250k severance package, the government announced its plan to cap payments at £95k.

“Sir Mark has been treated shoddily by this administration- and we do not begrudge him this payment. However the arbitrary cap will impact on long serving modestly paid public servants whose jobs are at risk.

“People are right to be angry at the hypocrisy and double standards which seem to apply for the sake of political expediency.”