BBC to publish expenses of more than 100 senior staff

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The BBC is to publish the salaries of 107 senior staff in the corporation from today. The details of business-related expenses and salaries will go live on a website later today , as part of moves to create a more transparent BBC, an email sent to staff from chief operating officer Caroline Thomson said.

The staff whose details will be published have been selected because they hold positions on the BBC's most senior boards and have responsibility for spending licence fee money and overseeing BBC operations.

"In June this year Mark [Thompson, director general] announced that the BBC would be increasing the amount of information it makes public regarding senior manager salaries and expenses. In the current climate we recognise that public expectation about the amount of information that the BBC publishes and how the licence fee is spent has changed. It is important that not only do we recognise this, but we also respond positively to it and make the necessary changes so we start to demonstrate greater levels of openness," said the email to staff. In June the corporation released figures on the expenses and salaries of its 50 top-earning managers. The release came in response to Freedom of Information requests and calls for more clarity.

"It [today's release] is not a one-off and builds on our previous publication of salaries and expenses and marks the start of a quarterly publication scheme. We have gone beyond any other public body in organising this data. Rather than publishing spreadsheets, we have ordered and organised the information and presented it in an accessible form for the public on our website," said Thomson in the email.

"There is no mistaking that the public desire greater levels of openness from all public sector organisations and today I believe we are stepping up to meet that challenge." Last month the BBC announced plans to cut its senior management pay bill by 25 per cent and freeze current pay and bonuses for senior staff, while reducing the total number of senior staff over a three-and-a-half year period.