“The Environment Agency (EA) has spent more than £500,000 of taxpayers’ money on payoffs to senior civil servants in the past year.

The quango has the job of helping to protect England from floods and pollution, but recently faced criticism over the failure of Sir Philip Dilley, its former chairman, to return promptly from a holiday in Barbados to deal with the aftermath of widespread flooding.

Dilley resigned last week after The Sunday Times revealed a statement issued by Sir James Bevan, the EA’s chief executive — seeking to justify Dilley’s absence because his wife’s family “was from Barbados” — was false. His wife is actually from Jamaica.

It has now emerged that a senior EA manager last year received a £115,000 compulsory redundancy payoff, bolstered by £130,000 of pension top-ups.

A deputy director with the EA also received £139,000 in a “voluntary release scheme” while a third, Pam Gilder, its former director of corporate affairs, was paid £112,133.
Separately, David Jordan, who officially retired as operations director last March, is paid £970 a month for chairing a committee. Dilley’s annual salary of £100,000 for a three-day week will be paid until the end of January.

Kerry McCarthy, shadow environment secretary, said: “There are questions about what has been happening in senior management at the EA when the focus should be on supporting frontline staff.”