Plans to pay the Student Loans Company’s chief executive off the payroll were questioned by the UK’s then most senior civil servant.
Documents obtained by Exaro show that Sir Gus (now Lord) O’Donnell, as cabinet secretary and head of the civil service, was persuaded to accept another payment route.
Ed Lester was able to pay less tax as chief executive of the Student Loans Company (SLC) by not working as an employee. He had been “interim” chief executive since May 2010, and was negotiating a further two-year contract from February 2011 that would allow him to keep what one senior mandarin called a “tax efficient” arrangement.
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