M&S boss's pay hits £7m before cyber attack chaos

Marks & Spencer's (M&S) chief executive's total yearly pay jumped to £7m, before a cyber attack knocked-out online orders, hit contactless payments and disrupted stocks in stores.

Stuart Machin got a bump, from the previous year's £5m total, mainly due to share awards from reaching performance targets including profit growth.

In this current year, however, a cyber attack on the retailer in April is expected to take a £300m bite out of profits.

The retailer's remuneration committee said it had considered the "recent cyber incident" when deciding on performance-related pay and concluded that "no adjustments were needed".

But it said it "recognised it would need to re-visit the matter" when deciding on next year's compensation.

M&S said insurance will cover some of the financial impact but issues with its online services will continue into July.

According to M&S's annual report, Mr Machin got a small rise in his basic salary to £843,000 in the year to March. His bonus grew by £100,000 to £1.6m. He also received a pension contribution.

But the amount he gained from share awards rose from £2.6m to £4.5m.

The attack took place over the Easter weekend and initially hit click-and-collect and contactless payments. Days later M&S put a banner on its website apologising that online ordering was not available.

Police are investigating a group of English-speaking hackers, known as Scattered Spider. The same group is believed to have been behind attacks on the Co-op and Harrods.