Public record · audited accounts to 2024/25
Falkirk
£166,528chief executive salary, 2024/25
6officers paid above £100,000
£8.6mexit packages, 182 of them, six years
£1,715Band D council tax, current year
It takes a whole year’s Band D council tax from
122 households
to pay the chief executive’s salary of £166,528. Band D in Falkirk was £1,364 in 2024/25, before water and sewerage.
The register
Who is paid what
| Officer | Salary | Employer pension | Other benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenneth Lawrie printed as “K Lawrie”Chief Executive Plus £2,035 election duty payments ('Other Amounts', reimbursed by government) and £391 pension contribution as Returning Officer. No bonuses, taxable expenses or non-cash benefits paid to any senior employee. | £166,528 | £32,473 | £0 |
| Karen Algie printed as “K Algie”Director of Transformation, Communities and Corporate Services; Acting Director of Children's Services to 12/05/24 Plus £166 election duty payments. | £133,338 | £25,453 | £0 |
| Malcolm Bennie printed as “M Bennie”Director of Place Services Plus £504 election duty payments. | £128,738 | £25,453 | £0 |
| Jon Reid printed as “J Reid”Director of Children's Services (from 13/05/24) Part year; full-year equivalent £130,526. Plus £270 election duty payments. | £115,463 | £22,510 | £0 |
| Amanda Templeman printed as “A Templeman”Chief Finance Officer (Section 95 Officer) | £113,932 | £22,217 | £0 |
| Sara Lacey printed as “S Lacey”Head of Social Work Children's Services (CSWO)corroborated Full-year cost £113,932. Plus £245 election duty payments. | £106,933 | £22,217 | £0 |
Basis A dash means the accounts did not disclose the figure. It does not mean zero. Employer pension is what the council pays into that officer’s pension on top of the salary. Where the accounts printed initials, the full name comes from the council’s own documents, and the methodology explains how.
The trajectory
What has actually happened to the pay
- Chief executive pay
- Band D council tax
Pay for comparative years is as the accounts disclosed it, which for a few councils is total remuneration rather than salary alone. Band D excludes water and sewerage.
Both lines start at 100 in 2019/20, so they can be read against each other: the gap between them is the gap between what the chief executive is paid and what the household bill has done since.
The whole senior team, salaries only
Basis Every officer in the council’s senior-employee table, with no £100,000 floor. Salaries as disclosed, never added up across a year where a figure is missing. Employer pension contributions appear against each officer above and are not in these totals. A star marks a year read from the following year’s accounts as its prior-year column. A few councils leave mid-year leavers out of that column, so a starred total can run slightly low.
The cohort
How many staff here are on the good money
334 employees were paid above £50,000 in 2019/20. By 2024/25 it was 807. Above £100,000 the count went from 5 to 19.
Basis The statutory £5,000-band disclosure covering all employees, counted above a fixed cash threshold as the accounts count it. Counting instead above the CPI equivalent of the 2019/20 threshold gives 334 then against 314 now, and the JSON carries that figure for every year. The backdated 2022/23 teachers’ pay award, paid in April 2023, pushes the 2023/24 figure up.
The goodbyes
Exit packages
Falkirk disclosed 182 exit packages costing £8.6m over the six years to 2024/25.
Packages of £100,000 and over
| Year | Band | Packages | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | £250,001–£300,000 | 1 | £278,121 |
| 2021/22 | £200,001–£250,000 | 1 | £247,697 |
| 2019/20 | £150,001–£200,000 | 1 | £150,346 |
| 2021/22 | £150,001–£200,000 | 1 | £172,442 |
| 2022/23 | £150,001–£200,000 | 1 | £162,395 |
| 2024/25 | £150,001–over | 5 | £902,583 |
| 2019/20 | £100,001–£150,000 | 3 | £339,370 |
| 2020/21 | £100,001–£150,000 | 2 | £214,979 |
| 2021/22 | £100,001–£150,000 | 1 | £144,014 |
| 2022/23 | £100,001–£150,000 | 2 | £236,372 |
| 2023/24 | £100,001–£150,000 | 3 | £439,276 |
| 2024/25 | £100,001–£150,000 | 7 | £792,613 |
Basis Exit packages as the remuneration report discloses them, by cost band. For most councils the cost covers pension strain and added years as well as the money paid to the person leaving. The bands name nobody, and neither does this record. A dagger marks a year where some bands showed packages with no cost against them, so the total is a floor rather than the full figure.
The invisible payroll
What the council pays into pensions
Basis Employer contributions taken from the pension notes to the accounts. This is the council’s own money going in, not the staff’s. This is the local government scheme only. The teachers’ scheme is a separate payment to the Scottish Government and is not added in here, because the council never printed a combined total.
LGPS: 'Contributions by Employer' £26,815k, plan-assets reconciliation in Note 17 (Defined Benefit Pension Schemes), printed in £000s; a separate line 'Contributions in respect of unfunded benefits' (£2,582k) is excluded. Teachers: £14.629m paid to Scottish Government per the Teachers' Pension Scheme section of Note 17, printed in £m. No combined total printed.
Officers and members
The paid and the elected
6 senior officers£764,932
all councillors£738,000
2024/25, salaries as disclosed
Basis The officers’ bar is salary only, before employer pension contributions. The councillors’ bar is the total printed in the remuneration report.
Table 'Remuneration paid to all Members' in the Annual Remuneration Report, printed in £000s: Salaries £734k, Allowances (Mileage) £2k, Expenses £2k, total £738k. The £2k mileage allowances line is not included in either the salaries or expenses fields; the printed total includes it. Number of councillors not stated.
This council as data: /api/scotland/falkirk.json