The Cabinet Office has published an updated list of the top earners in the civil service and government quangos. Martin Rosenbaum has the full list of new additions on his blog here. The updated list includes 27 officials who did not appear on the original Cabinet Office release on July 1st of this year. The officials are all civil servants and high-flyers at quangos such as the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority. Including the 27 on this list, there are 359 public sector employees who earn more than £150,000 (£8,000 more than the Prime Minster is paid).
We have been at the forefront campaigning for transparency in public sector pay. We published our Town Hall Rich list earlier this year and will continue to campaign for transparency in all central and local government staff pay packages. While it is a positive step forward to see that this data has been published it is a shame that it took an intervention from the Information Commissioner to get the full list released. Civil servants should not be resisting the moves for greater transparency. Openness delivers more efficient public services and is an important part of the democratic process.
It’s worth noting though there are still some public bodies that are excluded from publishing their pay packages. The BBC, Royal Mail and the FSA haven’t had to publish their top salary packages and they should follow suit.