Press Release

Today the BBC has published detailed line-by-line expenses (for April-June 2010) along with updated salary details (August 2010).

As part of the BBC's efforts to reduce costs across the organisation so that as much investment as possible goes into high-quality programmes, the figures show that top BBC executives now claim £445 a month in expenses on average – around £100 less than a year ago.

In addition, new figures show that as of the end of September the BBC has cut its senior manager paybill by 12.2% and the number of senior managers by 7.4%, with headcount dropping by 47 down to 592. Further reductions will be made by the end of next year in order to deliver a 25% reduction in pay bill and 20% reduction in headcount.

On average there has been an 18.2% reduction in expense claims compared to the same period last year with total claims for 114 executives at £50,752/month. This is also a 22.9% reduction on the previous quarter (Jan-Mar 10).

Compared to the same period last year, spending by top managers has dropped 31.7% on taxis (£31.5k), 30.7% on hospitality (£21k) and 9.5% on flights (£45.5k) – which are also down 44.3% on the previous quarter.

For all 17,078 BBC staff spend on hotels in 2009/10 was 16.3% lower than the previous year, spend on taxis was 12.2% lower, spend on hire cars was 8.6% lower and spend on flights reduced 3.0%.

BBC Chief Operating Officer, Caroline Thomson, said: "The BBC has for some time now recognised that we must change and work harder to convince the public that we are spending the Licence Fee wisely. That is why over the last 15 months we have become both a more transparent organisation and a better value organisation, committed to serious reductions to senior manager numbers and pay.

"We are focussing relentlessly on delivering quality and better value. We are bearing down on costs right across the organisation so as much investment as possible goes into high-quality programmes. Whilst some expenses are necessary to do the job, the evidence shown today shows real and significant progress on that journey – we have cut expenses by a fifth and are reducing our pay bill by a quarter."

Each member of the Executive Board will also forego a month's salary this year and next, which is an additional reduction to the figures shown here. From April 2011, the BBC will also cease payments of pension top-ups to senior executives.

Notes to Editors

1. The details will be published on the About The BBC section of the BBC website.

2. Today's disclosure of salaries, expenses and gifts underlines the BBC's commitment to being open and transparent, recognising that the public wants more information from all public organisations on how their money is being spent, as well as demonstrable restraint in terms of pay, expenses and overheads.

3. Today, the BBC has published 2,737 lines of information and has redacted less than 1% (25 lines) which demonstrates a progressive approach at the BBC. The BBC publishes salaries on a quarterly basis on www.bbc.co.uk.

4. The BBC is also publishing the Gifts & Hospitality Register for April to June 2010. Modest hospitality is an accepted courtesy of any business relationship and modest gifts may occasionally be accepted – however, the recipient should not allow a position to be reached whereby its acceptance might be deemed to have influenced a decision or lead to potential allegations of conflicts of interest.

BBC Press Office