Doubling up

You report the pension pot of Sir John Elvidge, our top civil servant, to be £1.7 million (22 May). That may be the sum held for him in a Civil Service fund, if any such fund exists at all. But a man aged just under 60 buying an index-linked pension of £75,000pa with widow's pension, would pay over £3m at current annuity rates. So with his tax-free lump sum payment of £225,000, his real pension pot is around twice the figure reported.

The public should be aware of such largesse, particularly as he announced his early retirement the day after being criticised by the Holyrood public audit committee – for doubling the contractual pay-off to Transport Scotland's chief executive Dr Malcolm Reed, without good reason.

JOHN BIRKETT

Horseleys Park

St Andrews, Fife