North Lanarkshire
It takes a whole year’s Band D council tax from
152 households
to pay the chief executive’s salary of £201,400. Band D in North Lanarkshire was £1,321 in 2024/25, before water and sewerage.
The register
Who is paid what
| Officer | Salary | Employer pension | Other benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desmond Murray Chief Executive Salary includes £4,689 election payments (note 2). No other benefits in senior employees' remuneration package. | £201,400 | £13,505 | £0 |
| Andrew McPherson Depute Chief Executive | £155,908 | £9,857 | £0 |
| Stephen Penman Chief Officer (Strategic Communication and Engagement) Salary includes £3,711 election payments (note 2). | £124,091 | £8,076 | £0 |
| Archie Aitken Chief Officer (Legal and Democratic) Salary includes £3,471 election payments. Plus £18,976 compensation for loss of office and £6,325 annual compensation (premature retirement; employed until 11 April 2025). | £123,851 | £8,076 | £0 |
| Elaine Kemp Chief Officer (Finance) (Section 95 Officer) Salary includes £602 election payments. Plus £30,580 compensation for loss of office and £10,193 annual compensation (premature retirement; employed until 11 April 2025). | £120,982 | £8,076 | £0 |
| Katrina Hassell Chief Officer (Business and Digital) Salary includes £400 election payments. Plus £152,824 compensation for loss of office (employed until 11 April 2025). | £120,780 | £8,076 | £0 |
| Fiona Whittaker Chief Officer (People Resources) | £120,380 | £8,076 | £0 |
| Alison Gordon Chief Social Work Officer (Education Families Justice and Integrated Practice) | £120,380 | £8,076 | £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
751 employees were paid above £50,000 in 2019/20. By 2024/25 it was 1,965. Above £100,000 the count went from 5 to 25.
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 751 then against 658 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
North Lanarkshire disclosed 659 exit packages costing £45.6m over the six years to 2024/25.
Packages of £100,000 and over
| Year | Band | Packages | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021/22 | £550,001–£600,000 | 1 | £569,000 |
| 2024/25 | £550,001–£600,000 | 1 | £562,000 |
| 2024/25 | £400,001–£450,000 | 1 | £419,000 |
| 2019/20 | £350,001–£400,000 | 1 | £354,000 |
| 2019/20 | £300,001–£350,000 | 1 | £316,000 |
| 2019/20 | £250,001–£300,000 | 2 | £534,000 |
| 2021/22 | £250,001–£300,000 | 1 | £272,000 |
| 2023/24 | £250,001–£300,000 | 1 | £282,000 |
| 2024/25 | £250,001–£300,000 | 3 | £841,000 |
| 2019/20 | £200,001–£250,000 | 11 | £2,508,000 |
| 2020/21 | £200,001–£250,000 | 2 | £487,000 |
| 2021/22 | £200,001–£250,000 | 1 | £237,000 |
| 2023/24 | £200,001–£250,000 | 6 | £1,345,000 |
| 2024/25 | £200,001–£250,000 | 3 | £709,000 |
| 2019/20 | £150,001–£200,000 | 6 | £1,042,000 |
| 2020/21 | £150,001–£200,000 | 4 | £738,000 |
| 2021/22 | £150,001–£200,000 | 2 | £384,000 |
| 2022/23 | £150,001–£200,000 | 2 | £352,000 |
| 2023/24 | £150,001–£200,000 | 20 | £3,408,000 |
| 2024/25 | £150,001–£200,000 | 9 | £1,550,000 |
| 2019/20 | £100,001–£150,000 | 7 | £829,000 |
| 2020/21 | £100,001–£150,000 | 9 | £1,187,000 |
| 2021/22 | £100,001–£150,000 | 9 | £1,106,000 |
| 2022/23 | £100,001–£150,000 | 3 | £348,000 |
| 2023/24 | £100,001–£150,000 | 38 | £4,663,000 |
| 2024/25 | £100,001–£150,000 | 7 | £901,000 |
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
That drop in the local-government line is not a mistake in the data. The fund’s actuary cut the employer rate from 2024/25, the council’s bill fell with it, and the difference stayed with the council.
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.
Prior-year comparatives in the 2020/21 accounts. LGPS: 'Contributions from employer' 43,527 (£000) in Note 26.2 reconciliation of the Council's share of the fair value of Strathclyde Pension Fund's assets; teachers: 'The figures for 2019/20 were £31.742m and 19.37%' in Note 26 Pension Costs narrative (paid to Scottish Public Pensions Agency). LGPS in £000 (x1,000), teachers in £m (x1,000,000). No combined total printed. Excluded: 'Contributions in respect of Unfunded Benefits' 7,401 (£000) and added-years pension payments £5.036m, disclosed separately.
Officers and members
The paid and the elected
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.
Remuneration Report table 'b. Remuneration of Councillors' (all Councillors including Senior Councillors): Salaries 1,811,219; Expenses 25,220; Total 1,836,439. Printed in whole £, no scaling. 'The Council was overseen by 77 elected members at the balance sheet date' (Management Commentary).
This council as data: /api/scotland/north-lanarkshire.json