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BBC increases rather than decreases staff paid £150k and cuts less than half predicted 2,000 jobs

By Dominic Ponsford

The BBC has cut less than half the number of jobs it said it was going to and increased rather than decreased the number of senior managers earning more than £150,000 a year.

The National Audit Office review found that spending on salaries had fallen by 6 per cent between 2010/2011 and 2015/2016. Over the same period some 3,400 staff were made redundant and there was a net reduction in headcount by 847 to 18,920.

In 2011 the BBC said it was planning to cut 2,000 jobs over the following five years.

A pledge to cut the number of senior managers earning more than £150,000 has also been missed. The report found that this number has risen to 98, from 89 in 2012.

The NAO said: “…the BBC has improved central management oversight and control of staffing, bringing greater consistency and standardisation to its approach. This has helped it to deliver many specific workforce commitments, including reducing payroll staff costs and numbers, in particular the cost and size of its senior management, increasing the proportion of staff outside London, and creating new posts in priority areas.”

But it said the BBC needs to improve the way it reports and tracks use of freelance and agency staff.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC Executive welcomes this report from the NAO which concludes that ‘the BBC’s approach to managing its workforce is securing better value for money than in the past, and is better placed to face the challenge of delivering more change in the future’.”

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National Union of Journalists broadcasting organiser Sue Harris said: “Most concerning has been the corporation’s failure to reduce by 20 per cent the number of senior staff.

“The BBC says it is no longer trying to meet this target and believes it is more relevant to look at the number of senior managers who are paid more than £170,000.  In March 2016, 61 senior managers earned more than this figure.

“The union also noted that the NAO rumbled the BBC for concealing highly-paid staff in grade 11, which is not a senior staff grade.

“The NUJ, which has seen its members hit by wave upon wave of budget and job cuts, has long argued for the fleshy layers of management to be cut and resources concentrated on the front-line of programming and news gathering.”

BBC journalism managers with a full-time equivalent salary of more than £150,000 include the following (source BBC):

  • Gavin Allen, Controller, Daily News Programmes
  • Keith Blackmore, Managing Editor, BBC News & Current Affairs
  • Fiona Campbell, Controller of BBC News Mobile & Online
  • Jim Gray, Deputy Head of TV Current Affairs
  • James Harding, Director of News & Current Affairs
  • Mary Hockaday, Controller, World Service English
  • David Holdsworth, Controller, English Regions
  • David Jordan, Director, Editorial Policy & Standard
  • Ian Katz, Editor, Newsnight
  • Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering
  • Francesca Unsworth, Director, World Service Group and Deputy Director, News & Current Affairs
  • Jon Zilkha, Controller, News Channels.

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