Former Shell boss Ben van Beurden obtained a pay package deal of £9.7m final 12 months, up greater than 50 % from 2021.

His pay was revealed within the oil and gasoline large’s annual report and accounts.

Shell reported the very best annual income in its 115-year historical past final 12 months after a surge in vitality costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Large income made by vitality corporations have added to stress to tax them extra as households wrestle with rising vitality payments.

Shell made a report $39.9bn (£32.2bn) revenue in 2022, double the earlier 12 months’s whole.

When its outcomes got here out in February, opposition events mentioned the corporate’s income have been “outrageous” and that the federal government was letting vitality corporations “off the hook” on taxation.

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In 2021, van Beurden was paid the equal of £6.3m – he was paid in euros as a result of Shell had but to maneuver its headquarters from the Netherlands to Britain.

He was changed on 1 January this 12 months by Wael Sawan, the previous head of Shell’s gasoline and renewables enterprise.

The annual report mentioned Sawan was appointed on a wage of £1.4m, though performance-related funds can typically add to the general pay package deal significantly. Mr van Beurden’s wage was £1.4m in 2022.

van Beurden’s pay package deal was criticised by human rights and surroundings charity World Witness.

“It’s an indication of simply how damaged our vitality system is that Shell and different fossil gasoline corporations have made record-breaking income from an vitality disaster that’s forcing households to decide on between heating their houses and placing meals on the desk,” mentioned Alice Harrison, fossil fuels marketing campaign chief at World Witness.

“We’re calling on the UK authorities to implement a people-first windfall tax in subsequent week’s Spring Funds, which incorporates government bonuses.”

Dean Bruckner, coverage director on the UK Shareholders’ Affiliation, which campaigns for shareholders’ rights, mentioned he had considerations that van Beurden’s pay package deal appeared “indefensible”.

He mentioned pay settlements comparable to this danger bringing “the company world into disrepute”.