Marks and Spencer’s incoming chief executive Marc Bolland will be barred from poaching staff from his former employer Morrisons, for one year.

As part of the deal agreed on between the two retailers, Bolland is expected to be bound by a 12-month restriction on hiring executives form the grocer, according to the Financial Times.

Sources close to the situation said the clause is standard, but the news comes at a time when there is doubt over whether Morrisons finance director Richard Pennycook, who narrowly missed out on succeeding Bolland as Morrison’s boss, will stay on at the business.

The grocer has granted long term incentive share packages, each worth around £550,000 to both Pennycook and group retail director Mark Gunter.

Bolland joins Marks & Spencer on May 1, with a £15m golden hello.