WOOD Group chief executive Robin Watson saw his total pay package increase by 41 per cent to £1.2 million in 2016 after changing role from chief operating officer of divisional business Wood Group PSN at the beginning of the year.

Despite the rise the package, which is made up of payments including a £600,000 salary, £320,000 bonus and £90,000 pension contribution, is just three per cent higher than that paid to Mr Watson’s predecessor Bob Keiller in the previous year.

Remuneration committee chairman Jeremy Wilson noted that Mr Watson’s package would have been larger had the business, which saw revenues slide by 16 per cent and pre-tax profits by 23 per cent during the year, performed better.

As the majority of the bonus is reliant on the company’s financial strength, Mr Watson, who could have received a total payout of £750,000, received just 43 per cent of that.

Chief financial officer David Kemp, who saw his total package increase by 86 per cent from £404,000 to £751,000, also received 43 per cent of his total potential bonus. The salary element of his package was £390,000 and the bonus element £208,000.

Both Mr Watson and Mr Kemp will have their salaries frozen at 2016 levels this year, with Mr Wilson noting that the company has altered annual bonus and long-term incentive plans instead of increasing base pay in order to “maintain low fixed pay with greater opportunities to earn variable pay”.

In 2016 Mr Keiller, who left the business at the end of 2015, received a long-term incentive plan award worth just over £200,000.