The BBC pays more than the Prime Minister’s £142,500 salary to 100 senior managers, the corporation has said for the first time.
Robert Johnston, who, as reward director, is the arbiter of the pay and perks of staff and is paid £183,750 a year, confirmed that 117 BBC staff earn more than David Cameron. The figure does not include the £229 million a year that the corporation pays presenters and performers.
Mr Johnston apologised earlier this year after The Times disclosed that he had tried to disguise pay figures. George Osborne, the Chancellor, has called for public sector pay restraint but the Tories have admitted that the Government can do nothing to address the level of executive pay at the BBC as it must respect editorial independence.
Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, said: “All I can do is advocate changes at the BBC while respecting editorial independence upon which the success of the BBC rests. I can’t do anything that requires the BBC to pay certain people certain amounts.”
The BBC has faced bitter criticism of its executive pay levels, with even one of the corporation’s own senior staff admitting that it had got pay “a bit wrong”.
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Caroline Thomson, the chief operating officer, said this month: “We may not be doing enough, we may have made mistakes in where we’ve got to.”
Among those who earn more than the Prime Minister are Clare Dyer, human resources director for the Future Media and Technology division, who is paid a salary of £150,000, Jacky Brandreth-Potter, director of brand and planning, whose salary is £167,145,and Simon Lloyd, director of marketing, communications and audiences for Future Media and Technology, who is paid £160,000.
The BBC publishes the pay and perks of its top 107 executives every three months but still refuses to name about 25 staff on salaries of more than £150,000. About 380 managerial staff are paid six-figure salaries.
The corporation raised eyebrows last week when it announced that 70 per cent of employees, more than 13,000 staff, would be given a £475 pay rise this year.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC is able to pay less than comparable organisations thanks to the appeal of working in the world’s most creative organisation. For senior managers we pay 20 per cent to 40 per cent less than similar employers.
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“Even so, we are constantly cutting overheads to focus resources even more on the great programmes our audiences demand. Over the next three years we will reduce the number of senior managers by 18 per cent and cut the total pay bill for senior managers by a quarter. Anyone can check our progress on this as we are open about pay and conditions, and regularly publish details in our annual report and online.”
The corporation faced further scrutiny yesterday when the BBC Trust ruled that a Harry Potter-themed day on Radio 1 breached editorial guidelines by giving undue prominence to J. K. Rowling’s wizarding series. The internal regulator said that the broadcasts, to coincide with the cinematic release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in July last year, gave too much coverage to a commercial film franchise.
The day’s broadcasting included special features in programmes presented by Chris Moyles, Sara Cox, Edith Bowman and Scott Mills, and the corporation also created a special website dedicated to the “Harry Potter Day”.
The BBC has been hit by a spate of rulings over undue prominence and fair trading, with coverage of releases by U2 and Coldplay, as well sponsorship of Sports Personality of the Year coming in for criticism from the BBC Trust.
Andrew Harrison, the chief executive of RadioCentre, the body that represents commercial radio stations and which made the complaint, said: “This decision is the latest example of the BBC falling under the spell of celebrity and being hijacked for the promotion of an already successful commercial product. We are urging it to be more ambitious and to put a stop to this kind of excessively commercial behaviour once and for all.”
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The Trust said in its ruling that the on-air references to the film “were not used sparingly nor were there very strong journalistic reasons for repeated references as the guidelines required”.
A spokesman said that Radio 1 had taken note of the trust’s findings.