BBC to keep pay of individual stars secret

Published on Thursday 25 June 2009 11:09

The BBC plans to make public the total amount it spends on its stars, but will continue to keep individual talent fees secret, the corporation said today.

The disclosure comes days after details of MPs' expenses were blacked out, causing outrage.

Director general Mark Thompson outlined plans today for the BBC to go further in opening up the information it gives to the public.

Last autumn it was decided that the BBC would be committed to regular routine publication of all the expenses incurred by members of the executive board.

That publication schedule is due to start this September.

Mr Thompson said: "In recent weeks, both the BBC Trust and the executive board have strongly encouraged us to look at whether we could – and should – go further in our practice of routine disclosure."

On the matter of executive salaries, Mr Thompson said that in future the BBC intends a breakdown of pay, by name, not just for executive directors as now, but for two other groups – the top 50 earners in BBC management and the top decision-makers, "those with the greatest responsibility both for spending public money and for overseeing the BBC's services and operations".

He said the total number of managers involved will be around 100 people beyond the executive board.

Mr Thompson added: "To repeat, in each case, there will be full disclosure of remuneration by name."

The BBC plans to extend its planned publication of expenses to everyone in this group of about 100.

Each quarter, it will publish full line-by-line expenses for each, as well as their hospitality and gift register.

But on the matter of talent, Mr Thompson said: "It has been our view that it does not make sense for the BBC to disclose individual talent fees.

"Why? We operate in an industry where confidentiality is the norm in which only one of our competitors is themselves subject to freedom of information.

"There's a real danger that talent would migrate to broadcasters where confidential information about how much they are paid will not be disclosed.

"But we recognise that the public have a legitimate interest in how much the BBC spends on talent, including top talent – and moreover that they have every right to hold us to account for actually delivering on that commitment to reduce the amount of the licence fee which goes on top talent.

"In future, we will disclose the total amount we spend on talent as a whole, and we will work on a plan to make our spend on talent more transparent so the public can monitor the direction of travel over time."

Mr Thompson said in the speech in Manchester: "Public expectations about openness, trustworthiness and every kind of value for money are becoming more trenchant, more insistent and more vocal than ever before.

"We believe that our current policies on FOI (freedom of information) and disclosure are at the forefront of our own sector and compare well with most of the other public bodies we've looked at."