Why RBS boss deserves bonus

There has been widespread condemnation of a bonus worth nearly a million pounds to the chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester.

He has been awarded £963,000 of shares by the mainly state-owned bank.

Labour and the unions have said it makes a mockery of claims that boardroom pay is being reined in.

The Liberal Democrat foreign minister Jeremy Browne said Mr Hester should forgo the pay award.

However Dr Ruth Bender, from the Cranfield School of Management in Bedfordshire, said the package was "reasonable".