Why were only 12 academy trusts written to over high pay?

Why were only 12 multi-academy trusts written to by the government this month, as it sought to continue to present itself as acting tough on high salaries in the sector?

The Department for Education published a list of this dozen organisations, which it said had been written to by Eileen Milner, chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, on the basis of either having someone on £150,000 or more, on multiple people paid in excess of £100,000.

This was its first intervention of any kind on the basis of information published in the last set of academy accounts, for 2017-18.

But, given that the DfE said itself in July, in its annual report and accounts for the academies sector, that 146 trusts paid at least one person £150k or more in 2017-18, with Education Uncovered then revealing that 166 individuals were in such a position that year, again it was puzzling why only these 12 had been selected.

Indeed, while it is impossible to tell without a trawl through all of their accounts how many trusts had paid more than one person £100,000 or more, that July document had also revealed that the remarkable figure of 988 trusts had made payments of £100,000 or more.