Pension payout is ‘staggering’

However the reason that Mr Maxwell is in line for this payout is because he did not have his contract renewed after admitting gross misconduct earlier this year over a nepotism scandal in which he tried to help a relative during his force’s recruitment drive.

In short, North Yorkshire’s taxpayers will conclude that Mr Maxwell is being financially rewarded, at a time of police cuts, for bringing his force, and police authority, into disrepute, and will concur with Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith’s assertion that this is a “staggering” state of affairs which should not be tolerated.

That said, this is not a North Yorkshire golden handshake. It is a loophole in the existing procedures governing police pensions, and which enable the likes of Mr Maxwell to be compensated if they leave the profession before competing 30 years of service. In this case, Mr Maxwell will have completed 28-and-a-half years’ service when he leaves his force next May.

As well as exposing, yet again, the disparity between public and private sector pensions, it is hard to think of any other walk of life where such a payment would be acceptable. The consequences need to be considered under the police pay and conditions review being led by Tom Winsor, the former rail regulator.

For, while it is relatively rare for a serving chief constable not to have their contract reviewed, such occurrences could become more frequent if the Government presses ahead with plans to introduce elected police commissioners who will be responsible for hiring and firing police chiefs.

And, given that the recently appointed Bernard Hogan-Howe is, for example, the fourth person to head the Metropolitan Police since Boris Johnson became the Mayor of London in 2008, the cost of such payouts will increase unless Ministers put in place safeguards to cover those instances when a chief constable departs because their conduct or judgment falls short of the standards expected of them by the public.