Holiday Gifting to Paid Staff Members

Question

Can a Council undertake expenditure for gifts in the form of vouchers, reimbursement of or direct payments for food/drink bill from local business establishments, etc as holiday gifts to paid members of staff; and, if so, would such gift expenditures have to be approved in advance by the Council? Are there reasonable small amounts that would not need to be discussed in advance; ie, at what level of expenditure per person would a gift be significant enough to require advance approval from a council, if that needs to be sought at all?

Answer 1

What? No….

There should be an annual statement of salaries approved by council and that’s it.
Holiday “gifts?”  What?  Hell no!

Answer 2

No NO NO! They have terms and condition in their contracts of employment. What the hell is a "holiday gift" anyway. If they have provision of refreshments provided by the employer then it should have been voted on by council before contracts were signed. Madness! Becoming more like the EU gravy train by the minute.

Answer 3

This is not an appropriate use of public funds so should not be happening.
However, if councillors wish to provide a gift for any reason, it should be funded by councillors out of their own pockets.  When our clerk had a bereavement, we all personally contributed to send flowers.  We did a similar thing for a councillor too.  No public money spent.

Answer 4

We did similar-a Christmas gift for our clerk, funded from our own pockets.