Public record · audited accounts to 2024/25
South Lanarkshire
£195,065chief executive salary, 2024/25
7officers paid above £100,000
£149,162exit packages, 1 of them, six years
£1,468Band D council tax, current year
It takes a whole year’s Band D council tax from
150 households
to pay the chief executive’s salary of £195,065. Band D in South Lanarkshire was £1,301 in 2024/25, before water and sewerage.
The register
Who is paid what
| Officer | Salary | Employer pension | Other benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Manning printed as “P Manning”Chief Executive Total remuneration includes Returning Officer fees for the July 2024 UK General Election. Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £195,065 | £12,167 | £0 |
| David Booth printed as “D Booth”Executive Director of Community and Enterprise Resources Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £162,560 | £10,566 | £0 |
| Soumen Sengupta printed as “S Sengupta”Executive Director of Health and Social Care A proportion of remuneration funded by South Lanarkshire HSCP for the Chief Officer role (note 1). Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £162,560 | £10,566 | £0 |
| Stephen Gibson printed as “S Gibson”Executive Director of Housing and Technical Resources Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £160,350 | £10,423 | £0 |
| Carole McKenzie printed as “C McKenzie”Executive Director of Education Resources (to 23 February 2025) Part year; full-year equivalent £160,350. Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £158,737 | £9,196 | £0 |
| Jackie Taylor printed as “J Taylor”Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £158,126 | £10,278 | £0 |
| Liam Purdie printed as “L Purdie”Chief Social Work Officer Taxable expenses nil (Table 2). | £122,615 | £7,970 | £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
740 employees were paid above £50,000 in 2019/20. By 2024/25 it was 1,664. Above £100,000 the count went from 8 to 34.
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 740 then against 646 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
South Lanarkshire disclosed 1 exit packages costing £149,162 over the six years to 2022/23.
Packages of £100,000 and over
| Year | Band | Packages | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | £100,001–£150,000 | 1 | £149,162 |
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.
LGPS figure is 'Employers' contributions payable to Strathclyde Pension Fund' (£'000, x1000) from the MiRS section of Note 30 Pension Schemes Accounted for as Defined Benefit Schemes. Teachers' figure printed as £30.215m paid to Teachers' Pensions in Note 29 Pension Schemes Accounted for as Defined Contribution Schemes (x1,000,000). No combined total printed.
Officers and members
The paid and the elected
8 senior officers£1.2m
all councillors£1.3m
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.
Note 14 Members allowances, figures in whole £. Expenses row is the printed 'Expenses' line; a separate 'Mileage Allowance' row of £14,564 is also printed and included in the printed total. Total number of councillors not stated (Remuneration Report names only the 19 Senior Councillors).
Arm’s length
Pay in the companies this council owns
| Body | Post | Salary | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture (SCIO) | — Employees in band | £110,000 - £119,999 | 2024/25 |
Basis Read from each body’s own filed accounts. Several of them disclose a pay band and no name. Where the accounts, Companies House or the council’s own report put the identification beyond doubt, the name is given and the evidence recorded. Where they do not, the row stays exactly as printed.
This council as data: /api/scotland/south-lanarkshire.json