In the Herald today, Maritime Williams has:
Three executives of the nation’s state-owned water supplier have received [a total] nearly £1m in bonuses in [over] the past five years – despite public sector pay rules that suspended the payments. The Herald on Sunday can reveal that three key executives of Scottish Water, Douglas Millican, Peter Farrer and Alan Scott, between them pulled in £969,000 in performance bonuses on top of six-figure salaries.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23901018.nearly-1m-bonuses-paid-three-scottish-water-execs/
I agree it seems too much but, as always, there’s no context. I did it in August 2023 and it needs little updating:
There are 11 water boards in England, so on average slightly smaller in terms of population served but much much smaller geographically than Scottish Water.
Scottish Water has maintained 90% of water courses at ‘good or better’ condition. England’s water boards have only managed 10%: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/08/13/englands-water-nine-times-more-likely-to-contain-sewage/
The Herald is telling us indignantly that the Scottish Water chief is getting a £50K bonus and earned £300K last year: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23728041.scottish-water-accused-50k-salary-rise-new-chief/?ref=ebbn&nid=1388&u=54f15f1382a35160f5f9fbd9de82faff&date=170823
In 2021, the average salary for an English water board CE, was £1.1 million, nearly 4 times that of the Scottish Water board CE: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uk-water-company-bosses-pay-rise-sewage-clean-it-up-rg88t5kl3#:~:text=The%20average%20remuneration%20for%20executives,paid%20almost%20%C2%A325%20million.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It seems that Martin Williams maybe has a touch of water on the brain with his “Ferry Stories” and now now his expose on Scottish Water. Obviously I say that in a caring sort of way.
Ever heard of “context” Martin? it might help with your future in journalism or a proper job.
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Oh dear, Martin playing the old “add things up to derive a big number” trick again, slap EXCLUSIVE on the front and invite cries of indignation… Ok, so 1m, 3 people, 5 years, average ca.66k bonus per person per year…
Thames Water has had at least one person on a bonus of ca.500k in one year, that’s the same Thames Water teetering on bankruptcy whilst polluting watercourses, running out of water etc., etc..
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‘In 2021, the average salary for an English water board CE, was £1.1 million, nearly 4 times that of the Scottish Water board CE.’
Don’t forget this: not got time to research latest figures but for 2021-22:
‘During the financial year 2021/2022, the main water companies in the UK paid out almost 966 million British pounds of dividends to their shareholders.’ These data, from Statista, do not include of course the publicly-owned Scottish Water.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1395359/dividends-paid-water-companies-uk/
In terms of money EXTRACTED from the public to provide the basic need for water and related services of quality which nation’s population is getting the best value?
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Yes but, does someone on 300,000 need a bonus to encourage them to do their job? I do remember at one time my employer introduced a time keeping bonus which was welcome on top of my £18 per week pay.
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