Abortion charity is slammed by watchdog over its chief executive’s £434,500 pay packet
- Simon Cooke’s pay packet increased from £300,000 to £434,500 in 2018
- Mr Cooke, joined Marie Stopes in 2013 having joined from a razor blade firm
- His base pay was £217,000 but received a matching bonus, according to figures
- The charity performs 70,000 terminations a year – most funded by the NHS
Simon Cooke, pictured, earned £434,500 as CEO as Marie Stopes International, the charity which carries out some 70,000 terminations a year – most of which are paid for by the NHS
The Charity Commission yesterday delivered a severe rebuke to a major abortion provider over the sky-high pay of its chief executive.
The watchdog gave ‘formal advice’ to Marie Stopes International to change how it decides earnings after Simon Cooke got £434,500 in 2018.
This compared to £300,000 the year before. The commission warning was the first shot in a campaign to curb the pay excesses of some charity bosses. It plans a full-scale report on pay next year.
Commission head Helen Stephenson said: ‘We understand why the public care about how charities pay their staff and why this undermines the reputation of charities as a whole.’
The criticism is the latest in a series of controversies for Marie Stopes International. It runs more than 60 clinics in Britain and performs around 70,000 UK abortions a year. Almost all are paid for by the NHS. It also has contraception and abortion networks across the developing world – and was paid nearly £50million from the taxpayer-funded foreign aid budget in 2018.
In 2016 it was forced to suspend some abortion services in the UK after criticism from the Care Quality Commission which found 400 botched terminations over a two-month period. Marie Stopes is also at the centre of a landmark legal battle over attempts to ban pro-life vigils near its clinics.
It has campaigned for decriminalisation of abortion to end the possibility of charges against patients or staff. Mr Cooke, who joined Marie Stopes in 2013 after heading up a razor blade manufacturer, was paid a salary of £217,250 last year with a matching bonus. He is the third highest-paid charity official in the UK.
He was one of 39 Marie Stopes staff on salaries of over £100,000.
Last year Marie Stopes International was given £48.17million by the Department for International Development for abortion and contraception programmes in developing countries
The commission – which has no power to compel charities to reduce executive pay – ordered the abortion provider to ‘review the factors it takes into account when making decisions about the CEO’s remuneration.’
It said: ‘Written documentation around the decisions on the CEO’s pay package is inadequate and it is therefore not clear how the principles they were supposed to follow in setting this package were applied in practice.’ It added: ‘The charity has not been able to provide the commission with evidence a proper and robust discussion took place either at full board or at the charity’s remuneration committee about the appropriate level of pay to be awarded to the CEO.’
Miss Stephenson said: ‘Issues like CEO pay help the public see how a charity is stewarding its resources, and whether it is behaving in an authentically charitable way.’ She added: ‘We are not a regulator or controller of executive pay. But we expect decisions of this nature to be made carefully, mindfully, and in a way that ultimately serves the charity’s beneficiaries into the future and demonstrates their special status as a charity.’
A spokesman for Marie Stopes trustees said they ‘strive at all times to ensure that the pay of the CEO is properly benchmarked and is set against tough and measurable targets designed to achieve the highest possible impact and return on investment for our donors and stakeholders.’
Last year Marie Stopes International was given £48.17million by the Department for International Development for abortion and contraception programmes in developing countries.