Brown calls on regulators to name staff earning over £150k
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called on regulators such as the FSA to name all individuals earning more than £150,000 as part of a number of measures to clamp down on excessive pay.
Speaking today about Whitehall efficiency, Brown said that the Government would publish the number of staff in each salary band above £50,000 and would name all those earning more than £150,000 in the civil service and other bodies.
But he also called on regulators and other public sector bodies to do the same in the “spirit of openness, accountability and responsibility”.
He said: “Those organisations found to be squandering public funds on over generous salaries for officials, at the expense of services for people, will be named and shamed.
“To set a new culture of openness, for civil servants and other bodies under direct ministerial control, we will publish for the first time the numbers in each salary band above £50,000 and name all individuals earning more than £150,000.
“And in the spirit of openness, accountability and responsibility I would expect others - including publicly-funded media, regulators and other public sector bodies - to do the same.”
The Treasury will have to approve all salaries over £150,000 and any bonuses over £50,000 before recruiting for senior positions. Those salaries not directly under Government control will have to be justified publicly to the relevant Secretary of State.
In his speech, Brown also said the Government would merge or abolish 123 quangos and would subject the remainder to greater oversight in order to save £500m a year.
He set out a further £12bn of spending cuts to reduce the UK’s public debt and announced that the senior civil service pay bill will be cut by up to 20 per cent over the next three years to save £100m a year.
He said that some senior pay and perks packages in the wider public sector have “lost touch with the reality of people’s lives”.
He outlined “radical reforms” to senior pay including tougher scrutiny for senior appointments and a review of senior pay across the whole of the public sector to be completed by next year’s Budget.
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Readers' comments (21)
David Townsend | 7 Dec 2009 12:40 pm
At the risk of asking the obvious, why, after 12 years in Government, is Gordon Brown only just waking up to the fact that we have 123 quangos that can either be merged or abolished!?
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You must be joking | 7 Dec 2009 12:44 pm
AT LAST!!!
This should be amusing!
Of course, we not only need information on those with salaries of over £150k, but also justification for how the "civil servants" at the FSA felt they warranted a "bonus" last year.
Let ye who is without sin cast the first stone!
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Evan Owen | 7 Dec 2009 12:45 pm
What is the point of all this? If it posturing please stop it now, it smacks of...all sorts.
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John Cowan | 7 Dec 2009 12:48 pm
Don't ask questions like that David, "New Labour" would launch a publicly funded enquiry into why we have 123 quangos!
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John Cowan | 7 Dec 2009 12:48 pm
Don't ask questions like that David, "New Labour" would launch a publicly funded enquiry into why we have 123 quangos!
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John Blackmore | 7 Dec 2009 12:54 pm
would be more interested in a list of regulators who could justify their pay no matter what the level.
I doubt if a 20 year cost benefit analysis would show a positive result.
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Alan Summerfield | 7 Dec 2009 12:56 pm
Never quite know whether to trust anything Mr B has to say, and indeed it may be posturing, but if it's real, bring it on - we are all paying the inflated salaries of the very people that seek to micro-manage us while letting the macro-economy go to hell in a hand-cart. As for bonuses paid to the regulator, words fail me..
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Incompetent Regulators Awards Team | 7 Dec 2009 1:00 pm
To Evan Owen. Have you been knobbled by Sants? Because it shows!
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F-Pack Wooden Spoon Awards Team | 7 Dec 2009 1:03 pm
In 2006 we have over 190 staff at the FSA earning in excess of £100k. Name and shame the useless please asap.
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mike eve | 7 Dec 2009 1:10 pm
Well done Taxpayers Allince. It seems that they are making the Agenda.Brown would certainly be fired in a private sector business if
he had allowed such a growth in owerhead without any plans as to how to pay for it. He is
clearly a weak and ineffective CEO so will the declarations be turned into actions
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