A recent report by New Bridge Street recently presented to the TfL board’s renumeration committee stated "Since private sector employers typically offer deferred share bonuses and long-term incentives (which would be forfeit on resigning), TfL is likely to find that it will also need to consider whether and to what extent it would be willing to ‘buy-out’ entitlements forfeited. These can be very sizeable and could mean that certain candidates are considered out of reach.” (Page 9 of the New Bridge Street report / page 64 of the entire bundle here: http://content.tfl.gov.uk/remcom-20190123-agenda-and-papers.pdf) Please a) provide a copy of TfL’s written policy on the buying out of such entitlements, including any cap in value b) if not covered in a, please confirm which pay / job grades this perk applies to c) the total value of benefit buy-outs made in each of the past 3 financial years and the number of staff who benefitted

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Our ref: FOI-2844-1819 

 

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 25 January 2019 asking for information about new recruit benefit 'buy-out'. 

 

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold some of the information you require. 

 

The New Bridge Street benchmarking report referenced within the 23 January 2019 TfL Remuneration Committee paper dates from January 2016.  The information, analysis and commentary contained within it is no longer current and the purpose of the 23 January Remuneration Committee paper was to facilitate the Committee’s discussion and agreement for how benchmarking should be undertaken in 2019, using the 2016 report as a basis to work from. 

 

The January 2016 report contained a range of commentary and observations from the consultant who wrote it.  This included a number of items they felt pertinent to draw to the then Committee’s attention including: 

 

• Trends in private sector remuneration 
• Trends in public sector remuneration 
• Pay Multiples Ratio 
• Considerations for when recruiting from outside the public sector 

The latter section on recruiting from outside the public sector, the subject of your request, represented a general commentary based on the author’s observations of the significant differences in remuneration practice between public and private sectors at an executive level.  It did not make recommendations to the Committee and simply commented on how TfL may need to respond to certain circumstances.  It is important to note therefore that it did not represent commentary on TfL’s actual remuneration practices. 

 

Please see below our response to your specific requests: 

 

Please  

 

a) provide a copy of TfL’s written policy on the buying out of such entitlements, including any cap in value 

 

TfL does not have a policy on the buy-out of entitlements because it is not something that forms part of TfL’s normal remuneration practices.  As per the answer in c) below there has been no instances of such a buy-out happening in the past 3 financial years. 

 

b) if not covered in a, please confirm which pay / job grades this perk applies to 

 

As detailed above, TfL does not have a policy nor practices the buying out of forfeited entitlements. 

 

c) the total value of benefit buy-outs made in each of the past 3 financial years and the number of staff who benefitted  

 

There have been no instances of such a buy-out happening in the past 3 financial years.    

 

If this is not the information you are looking for please do not hesitate to contact me. 

 

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal. 

 

Yours sincerely 

 

Graham Hurt 

 

FOI Case Officer 

FOI Case Management Team 

General Counsel 

Transport for London

 

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