BBC to reveal salaries - under government orders

Gordon Brown wants salaries revealed

Money is a delicate subject for many; everyone secretly wants to know what their colleagues are on, but it's often frowned upon for the subject to be bought up. Yet under Government plans to "name and shame" highly paid workers, the BBC will be forced to reveal the names and salaries of 105 senior managers paid more than GBP£150,000.

The corporation, which is funded by the GBP£142.50 licence fee, has only named 80 staff who earn more than GBP£150,000 in its disclosures of pay and expenses, which it publishes every three months.

According to the British paper The Times, the broadcaster has calculated that it employs 105 staff on more than GBP£150,000. This figure excludes on-screen talent and employees of BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm. So far, it has resisted calls to name the remaining 25, claiming that they do not have enough responsibility to warrant being identified.

Senior executives are to reconsider that policy after Gordon Brown's call yesterday for public sector bodies, "including publicly funded media", to publish numbers of employees in each salary band of more than GBP£50,000, and to name individuals earning more than GBP£150,000.

Names not disclosed

Although Mr. Brown did not mention any names, Government sources indicated that the targets included the BBC management. It was not clear whether presenters such as Jonathan Ross would be involved.

Mr. Brown's spokesman said that the question of how far it would extend including the treatment of BBC "talent", would be left to Bill Cockburn, the chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body, who is conducting a review of senior public sector pay before next spring's Budget.

According to the BBC, it had become the "nation's most transparent public body" when it began publishing the pay and expenses of its 107 top employees last month.

Caroline Thomson, the corporation's chief operating officer, said: "We recognise that there is still some distance to go."

Payroll

The broadcaster has already announced plans to reduce the payroll of its senior managers by 25 percent by 2013, but so far it won't publish the amount that it gives to presenters like Jonathan Ross.

In January the corporation will publish the total that it pays all performers, as well as the number of presenters in a variety of salary bands, but will not reveal their identities. It is unclear whether the employees of BBC Worldwide will be under the new requirements.

The BBC has refused to disclose the salaries at its subsidiary, as the staff are paid out of the receipts of commercial deals, rather than from the licence fee.

A spokesman for the BBC said, "The BBC is at the forefront in setting the standards for financial disclosure. We already publish the salaries and expenses of our most senior managers, the numbers of all senior managers in salary bands and are committed to reducing the total senior management pay-bill by 25 percent."

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