The Stage

BBC to reveal executives’ expenses and pay

Published Thursday 25 June 2009 at 11:42 by Matthew Hemley

The BBC is to reveal the pay and expenses claims of around 100 of its most senior members of staff in a bid to increase transparency within the Corporation.

Speaking today at a finance and accountability conference in Manchester, director general Mark Thompson said he intended to “open up the BBC further” and publish an exact breakdown of pay, by name, of the top 50 earners in BBC management and the top decision makers - a group that he said has yet to be defined precisely - within the organisation.

This will be in addition to the executive directors, whose pay details are already published annually.

Thompson said there would be “considerable overlap” between some of the managers and decision makers, but added the total number would be around 100 people beyond the executive board.

For this group of 100, Thompson said, in addition to pay, the BBC would “publish full line-by-line expenses for each”.

Regarding talent, Thompson admitted the BBC employed a “small number of people who earn a great deal for what they do”, but added that the Corporation would not be revealing the individual salaries of these.

However, he said the BBC would in future disclose the total amount it spends on talent as a whole, so that the “public can monitor the direction of travel over time”.

He added: “We will commit ourselves to look systematically for further ways in which we can open up the workings of the BBC to the public at large.”