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
John Fingleton: ceo of the Office of Fair Trading – £275,000-279,999
John Suffolk: chief information officer for HM government – £205,000-209,999
Jeremy Beeton, director-general of the Government Olympic Executive – £225,000-£229,999
Mike Mitchell, head of National Networks Group, Department for Transport – £200,000-204,999
David Nicholson, chief executive of NHS, £255,000-259,999 (including £45-50k flat rental)
Clare Chapman, director general of workforce, Health department – £220,000-224,999
Sir Liam Donaldson, chief medical officer, Health department – £200,000-204,999
Christine Connelly, chief information officer, Health department – £200,000-204,999
Gabriel Scally, regional director of public health, Health department – £200,000-204,999
Joe Harley, IT director-general and chief information officer, DWP – £245,000-249,999
Patrick Crawford, chief executive of the Export Credits Guarantee Department – £205,000-209,999
Steve Lamey, director-general benefits & credits, HMRC – £205,000-209,999
Helen Kilpatrick, director-general finance and commercial – £205,000-209,999
Lin Homer, chief executive, United Kingdom Border Agency, Home Office – £205,000-209,999
Sir Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff – £240,000-244,999
Andrew Tyler, chief operating officer, defence equipment and support, MoD – £200,000-204,999
D Pitchford, major projects executive director, Office for Government Commerce (OGC) – £200,000-204,999
Paul Hemsley, finance director, Ordnance Survey – £220,000-249,999
Sir Andrew Cahn, chief executive, UK Trade & Investment – £205,000-209,999
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey