Information regarding ONS' special payments and losses

You asked

​Section 1:

Please provide a record of your central register of:

a) Losses

b) Special payments

As defined in HM Treasury's "Managing public money" guidelines.

Please provide information for the period April 2017 to date, for payments or losses of the value of £50,000 or more.

For each special payment or loss, please provide:

i) The category of loss or special payment incurred, such as whether the cost was due to bad debt, a fruitless payment, a compensation payment made under legal obligation or a severance payment.

ii) The nature, gross amount (or estimate where an accurate value is unavailable), and cause of each loss or special payment

iii) The financial year in which the loss or payment was formally written off and/or recorded as a loss or special payment.

iv) Any action taken as a result of the loss or payment that is centrally held or retrievable within cost. If responding to

iv) Risks breaching the cost limit, please disregard and provide a response to the remaining questions.

Section 2:

Please provide a copy of your organisation's loss and special payment policy.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Please find the information you have requested in Section 1 and its subsequent sub-sections in the accompanying spreadsheet download, named 'Special Payments and Losses over £50k Apr17 to present'.

Please see the below excerpt, showing a copy of our loss and special payment policy, requested in Section 2 of your request.

Non-standard financial transactions

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) administers losses, overpayments and special payments in line with Managing Public Money and within the limits of its delegated authority.  All non-standard financial transactions are monitored and transacted via the Head of Corporate Reporting and Payroll in line with Managing Public Money. Requests for review are submitted to the Head of Corporate Reporting and Payroll and assessed by the Deputy Financial Director and ONS' HM Treasury Spending Team where a higher level of approval is required.  All transactions considered novel and contentious, regardless of the value of the transaction, are referred to HM Treasury for approval.

From time to time the Authority may find it appropriate to carry out transactions outside the usual planned range, eg:

• write-offs of unrecoverable debts or overpayments;

• recognising losses of assets;

• long term loans or gifts of assets.

The Authority may have a legal or business obligation which would be uneconomic or inappropriate to carry out to the letter. In these instances, the Authority will seek a pragmatic, just and transparent alternative approach, appropriately reported to parliament in the Authority's Annual Report and Accounts. One-off schemes of this kind are always novel and HM Treasury approval is sought.

During the financial reporting years 2017/18 to 2019/20 the Authority concluded voluntary early severance schemes, a business case was submitted to Cabinet Office, and the attached payments were made with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury approval.  

PILON and CILON

During the period 2017/18 to 2019/20 the Authority did not make any CILON or PILON payments to individuals of £50k or over.