Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a cap on chief executive pay in the school sector.

The department sets out our expectations on senior pay for academies and academy trusts in the Academy Trust Handbook, which is published on GOV.UK here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a3909aab418ab055592dda/Academy_trust_handbook_2024_FINAL.pdf.

The handbook requires that:

• An academy trust’s board of trustees ensures its decisions, when setting levels of executive pay (including salary and any other benefits), follow a robust evidence-based process.
• Academy trusts’ decisions on pay must be a reasonable and defensible reflection of the individual’s role and responsibilities.
• No individual can be involved in deciding their remuneration.
• Academy trusts must be transparent on pay and publish the number of employees whose benefits exceed £100,000 on their websites in £10,000 bandings. Where employees are also trustees, this information must be disclosed in £5,000 bandings.

In addition, the department’s ‘Setting executive salaries’ guidance published on GOV.UK outlines the key contextual factors that trusts should be considering when setting or reviewing executive salaries. The guidance can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-executive-salaries-guidance-for-academy-trusts/setting-executive-salaries-guidance-for-academy-trusts.