Amber Rudd’s Home Office fined for overpaying Alexis Jay

By Richard Ford
Times
July 15, 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/home-office-fined-for-overpaying-inquiry-head-77238p65t

Amber Rudd’s department has been landed with a fine of £366,000 for breaching spending processes over the salary she offered Alexis Jay to head the child sex abuse inquiry Photo by HANNAH MCKAY

The Home Office has been handed a substantial fine by the Treasury after Amber Rudd’s department broke Whitehall rules over the salary given to the head of the child sex abuse inquiry.

Ms Rudd, the home secretary, hired Alexis Jay after Dame Lowell Goddard, a judge from New Zealand, quit in controversial circumstances.

Ms Rudd had been in position for only a few weeks when she appointed Professor Jay. It was a speedy appointment to ensure the inquiry continued to operate with minimum disruption. However, in what could be considered a political case of more haste less speed, her department has been landed with a fine of £366,000 for breaching spending processes over the salary she offered her choice to head the investigation.

It emerged in the Home Office’s 2016-17 annual report that Ms Rudd failed to follow government rules when she appointed Professor Jay, a social worker. Under restrictions imposed because of the government’s austerity drive, salaries at a level above the prime minister’s must be signed off by the chief secretary to the Treasury.