Settlement Agreements

Summary

A request was made for statistics and templates regarding Settlement Agreements issued by the Department of Home Affairs between September 2021 and January 2025. The authority responded that no such information is held for non-Public Service Commission staff, while noting that PSC staff and the IOM Constabulary fall under separate jurisdictions.

Key Facts

• The Department of Home Affairs does not hold records of Settlement Agreements for non-PSC staff between September 2021 and December 2024.
• The Isle of Man Constabulary is an independent public authority and was excluded from this search.
• Requests regarding Public Service Commission (PSC) employed staff should be directed to the PSC as a separate authority.
• The Office of Human Resources confirmed there were no settlement agreements within the specified scope.
• The request was formally closed on 20 January 2025.

Data Disclosed

• September 2021
• 31 December 2024
• 20 January 2025
• 4339699
• 0

Original Request

Dear Sir, Please may you provide me with the total number of Settlement Agreements that have been issued by the Department of Home Affairs between September 2021 and current. Please may this be broken down into a table which categorises the reason for the Settlement Agreement (e.g. disciplinary etc.) and also the monetary compensation figure associated with each respective Settlement Agreement. Lastly, please may you provide me with a blank copy of the Settlement Agreement that is currently on file that would be used as a template to fill in the blanks as per se. Thanks.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Freedom of Information Coordinator DHA Headquarters Tromode Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM2 5AP

Telephone: (01624) 687017 Web address: www.gov.im/dha
Email: DPO-DHA@dha.gov.im

Our ref: 4339699 20 January 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request received 31 December 2024, which states:

"Dear Sir,

Please may you provide me with the total number of Settlement Agreements that have been issued by the Department of Home Affairs between September 2021 and current.

Please may this be broken down into a table which categorises the reason for the Settlement Agreement (e.g. disciplinary etc.) and also the monetary compensation figure associated with each respective Settlement Agreement.

Lastly, please may you provide me with a blank copy of the Settlement Agreement that is currently on file that would be used as a template to fill in the blanks as per se.

Thanks."

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Department of Home Affairs (the “Department”) does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find the information that you have requested.

To provide advice and assistance, the Department comprises staff employed under both the Public Service Commission (“PSC”) as well as staff not employed through PSC, e.g. Firefighters in the Isle of Man Fire and Rescue Service.

For this query, we have looked specifically at non-PSC staff, employed by the Department. We did not include IOM Constabulary within the scope of our searches, while they are part of the Department, they are an independent public authority to whom you can submit a Freedom of Information request.

The Office of Human Resources (“OHR”) was contacted regarding this query and asked if they held any records pertaining to any settlement agreements within the Department from the time September 2021-31st December 2024 (the date of the request), to which they responded to confirming there were none.

As PSC is a separate public authority; you may wish to redirect this query towards the PSC who may be able to provide the information requested in relation to PSC- employed staff.

PSC can be contacted via the same portal through which you submitted this request, please select “Public Service Commission” from the list of Public Authorities on the request submission form.

Please quote the reference number 4339699 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely###