The government today (Tuesday) releases a list of the 172 civil servants who earn more than £150,000 a year. Some of it is not new information – for example the permanent secretaries’ salaries – although it’s instructive to have it all in one place.
Credit for these disclosures should go to Gordon Brown, who announced the move last November while he was prime minister.
Curiously, 11 mandarins refused to disclose their salaries; it is not clear why the government can’t publish them without permission. Another three were withheld, presumably for reasons of security.
Bear in mind that these salaries are dwarfed by some at various publically-funded bodies, however. Kevin Lygo, director of programmes at Channel 4, picked up £1.14m in 2008/9. Adam Crozier earned £995,000 in the same year and Iain Coucher, head of Network Rail, picked up £830,000.
These should be among the further disclosure of payments later in the year from all public bodies as David Cameron widens out the process of disclosure. (He is also lowering the threshold to £58,000 by January).
Here is the entire list. In the meantime here are all 21 of those over £200,000:
Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary – £235,000-239,999
Stephen Laws, first parliamentary counsel – £225,000-229,999
Robert Parker: parliamentary counsel – £210,000-214,999 Read more
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