BBC to be investigated by watchdog over revelations that 200 executives received pay-offs of £100,000 EACH in just three years

The BBC is to be investigated by the National Audit Office after it emerged that almost 200 of the corporation’s managers have been handed payoffs of £100,000 each in the past three years.

The watchdog is to examine the scale of severance packages in the New Year after MPs recently claimed that losing a job at the BBC was like ‘winning the lottery’.

The move comes after it was revealed that the BBC’s former Director General, George Entwistle, received a £450,000 exit package when he left the job last month - double what he was entitled to.

New figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that since 2010, 194 executives have been given £100,000 payoffs.

The corporation also used more than £6million of licence-fee payers’ money to pay 14 executives more than £300,000 each.

The highest individual payment was £949,000, which went to former deputy director-general Mark Byford, pictured, as compensation for loss of office

The figures reveal that redundancy payoffs almost doubled to £58million between 2010 and 2011.
In 2010, 481 BBC staff received redundancy payments worth a total of £27million, while last year, 1,281 staff were handed payoffs totalling £58million. In the first six months of 2012, 270 staff members were given £14million. The average payout for departing BBC workers was £51,000.

It means that in total, the corporation has paid £277million in redundancy to almost 6,000 staff in the past seven years. Four executives have taken more than £8.5million in payouts and pension deals with them in the past two years alone.

A spokesman for the NAO, which scrutinises public spending on behalf of parliament, said it will begin an investigation in severance packages at the corporation as part of its New Year programme, saying: ‘It is our intention that it will in the programme.’

MPs were left ‘incredulous’ when learning that former chief operating officer Caroline Thomson left with a £670,000 pay-off in September - more than twice her £330,000 salary - even though she had wanted to quit.

Sharon Bayley, the former director of marketing, communications and audiences, left in October 2010. She was given a payout worth nearly £400,000, despite having been at the BBC for less than two years.

The biggest payoff was awarded to Mark Byford, the former director of journalism, who received £949,000, while an unnamed finance officer was given a £420,000 payoff.

A spokesman for the BBC Trust said today: ‘The Chairman previously suggested that it would be useful for the NAO to look not just at the package George Entwistle received, but at severance pay in the BBC more widely. We have received their schedule of work for 2013 and we are pleased to see that they will take this approach in a planned review for next year.

‘Work will begin on this as soon as possible and we will, as always, ensure the NAO are given full access to all the information they require to carry out this review.’

A BBC spokesman added: ‘The BBC is in the process of reducing its senior management numbers, which have come down by around 25 per cent and senior management paybill, which has come down by around 30 per cent. Some of this has been achieved by redundancy.

‘While these redundancies involve costs in the short term, in the long term they represent savings for the corporation as these roles are not replaced.’

Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘It would appear that George Entwistle’s much-publicised pay-off was only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eye-watering BBC severance packages.

‘The NAO is right to be looking at this issue as a matter of urgency and Lord Patten should expect to face serious questions about how these golden goodbyes can represent good value for licence fee payers’ money.

‘As families up and down the country have to tighten their own belts, the Corporation needs to do the same. Redundancy deals like these are not the norm in the private sector and they are unacceptable at the BBC.’

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