The director-elect of a pioneering shared legal services organisation has been suspended from his current role as head of legal and democratic services at Northamptonshire County Council.

Chris Whittington was appointed director of Legal Services Lincolnshire (LSL) in October and is expected to take up his post in January. LSL, which covers Lincolnshire County Council (LCC), four districts and one borough authority, will provide legal services for the whole county.

With weeks to go before Whittington takes up his new post, Northamptonshire says it has launched an investigation after it received allegations against him. The council revealed no details and stressed that suspension involved no judgement.

‘Because of Whittington’s role as monitoring officer there has been no alternative but to suspend him while these allegations are investigated,’ a spokesman said.

‘The suspension is not a disciplinary action and in no way makes any assumptions about the truth or otherwise of those accusations being made.’ Whittington said he had nothing to add.

Lincolnshire said it is aware of the allegations and suspension and is liaising with Northamptonshire. The new legal organisation will go ahead.

Whittington was appointed director of LSL because of his experience in both the public and private sectors and his expertise in service transformation and innovation. On his appointment, Whittington said he was delighted to ‘lead LSL forward to become a first-class provider of legal services within the public sector’.