Policy hub
12 steps to take now The Information Commissioner’s Office has a useful document Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation GDPR) 12 steps to take now (http://bit. ly/1XLwlsA) which covers: awareness; information you hold; individuals’ rights; communicating privacy information; lawful basis for processing personal data; subject access requests; consent; data breaches; children; data protection by design and data protection impact assessments; data protection officers; international. Follow this link for full details of the CIPP half-day training course: http://bit. ly/2w2eMvR. In-house training options are available and this course will help you understand and prepare for the changes under GDPR, including how they affect the payroll and HR functions, so that you can help your organisations become fully compliant by May 2018. Public sector exit payments cap The policy team wanted to establish how many relevant public sector employers have made the necessary changes ‘expected’ by government in relation to the public sector exit payments cap of £95,000. After the aforementioned GDPR poll, we ran another which at the time of writing was still running. Early indications showed that 45% didn’t know there was a change and 37% haven’t yet made any changes. 10% of respondents had already made changes, and the remaining 8% are planning to make changes. So, what are these changes that many are unaware of? Firstly, let me clarify the current position. Regulations do not yet exist that create the public sector exit cap itself. The Treasury, Scottish Ministers and Welsh Ministers have had the power to bring forward regulations since 1 February 2017, but they have not yet done so. The government’s expectation is that the necessary changes be made to compensation schemes and other arrangements within nine months of the publication of their consultation response. ● Background – In September 2016, the government published their response to the consultation on Reforms to public sector exit payments (http:// bit.ly/2cGjPf9). The response outlined the government’s expectations that
departments should begin work to produce proposals for reform for each workforce by the end of 2016. The response document outlined the process and timeline for reform. The detail of exit arrangements are to be negotiated at workforce level; departments responsible for the workforces will take forward the detailed design and analysis of proposals for exit payment reform, within the overall framework and principles for reform set out in the response. ...go back to the court that issued the notification... The government expects departments to begin work immediately to produce proposals for reform for each workforce that are consistent with the terms set out in the document and with the government’s principles for reform. The government will consider the case for applying elements of the framework flexibly on a workforce by workforce basis. Examples of where the government may consider there is a case for flexibility may include where it can be demonstrated that a particular option may not lead to significant cost savings; where there is an alternative approach that may deliver commensurate cost savings; or where workforce demographics mean that a particular option may have unwarranted equalities or other workforce impacts. The government expects departments to put forward proposals for reform within three months of the publication of the government response (end of 2016). Departments should then consult on proposals as appropriate and should follow the normal process of discussions and negotiations with trade unions and other workforce representatives to seek agreement to their reform proposals. The government expects this discussion process to be concluded, agreement reached and the necessary changes made to compensation schemes and other arrangements within nine months of the publication of the response. That takes us to the end of June 2017. The response also says that should it not be possible to achieve meaningful reform for one or more workforces, the government will consider options for primary legislation to take forward reform. ● Devolved administrations – In both the
exit payment recovery and exit payment cap reforms, the government position has been that the reforms would apply to those areas which are the responsibility of the UK government. It would be for the Scottish government, Welsh government and Northern Ireland executive to determine if and how they wanted to take forward similar arrangements in relation to devolved bodies and workforces. However, if and when a legislative consent motion is required, it would be for the devolved administrations themselves to decide whether this is a desirable approach. The Policy News Journal , a benefit reserved exclusively for CIPP members, contains articles that we have written on this subject with further details and links to the relevant legislation. All published information on our polls and surveys can be found in the Policy News Journal , (under My CIPP on our website) Off-payroll working and court orders At one of our recent national forums a member raised a question when we were talking about student loans and off-payroll working in the public sector. Though guidance (http://bit.ly/2vdJsJm) advises not to apply a student loan for an off-payroll worker, what happens with court orders? Under normal circumstances courts would only issue court orders to the individual’s employer, which would be the personal service company (the company owned by the individual); therefore, the responsibility would fall to them. However, if the end client did receive a court order for someone caught under the off-payroll working regime, they should go back to the court that issued the notification to advise them that the individual is not an employee and therefore they cannot operate the court order as instructed. Further information on off-payroll working in the public sector can be found on GOV.UK (http://bit.ly/2kEwmCV). Q
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 34 | October 2017
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