Civil service pay: Cable calls for 'more discipline'

Business Secretary Vince Cable has called for "more discipline" in the public sector pay after it was announced that 172 officers are more than the Prime Minister paid.

The salaries of those earning more than £ 150,000 were revealed for the first time in an attempt to aid transparency.

OFT chief executive John Fingleton, whose annual package of £ 279,999, is the top earner.

Mr Cable said large increases in wages were not "affordable".

David Cameron, who is paid £ 142,500 a year, has a series of items Whitehall departments must disclose in an attempt to remove what he called a "cloak of secrecy" around the government said.

The salary and perks packages were revealed as part of this commitment to greater public access to official information.

Among other top earners NHS chief executive David Nicholson, who paid up to £ 259,999 and Joe Harley, IT Director General and Chief Information Officer at the Department for Work and Pensions, which receives £ 249,999.

Approximately 28 of those earning over £ 150,000 to the Ministry of Defence, but only three are based on the Ministry of Transport.
'Better Governance'

Permanent Secretaries - the head of public services - are paid between £ 150,000 and £ 200,000 per year.

Cabinet Minister Francis Maude said: "By being open and accountable, we can begin to regain the trust of people.
"Openness will not be pleasant for us in government, but the public will be able to keep our feet to the fire. This way is better government."

He added that the "transparency" is the key to the effectiveness of the coalition government drive would allow the public to help "deliver better value for money in public spending."

Business Secretary Vince Cable told BBC Radio Scotland he had written to the university and college heads tell them to "review" to compensation, adding more realism that was needed throughout the public sector.

"There is huge wage increases are the highest salaries, the people in the public sector trying to replicate what happens in the private sector and frankly is not affordable," he said.

And former foreign minister David Miliband said that more openness about the pay of top officials was "right".

"A great responsibility," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"In some areas there is the need to pay more. I think the commitment of people in public service, commitment to public service, is not fundamentally driven by money, but they should be well rewarded."
Private sector comparison

Represents the union officials said that no objections to the details are published, stressing they represented the wages of about 170 people in an organization of more than 500,000 employees.

"These are relatively high salaries compared to the average, but they are modest in many, most cases in comparison with the private sector," said Jonathan Baume, general secretary of the First Division Association.

"They are the jobs on top of a huge organization that across the UK."

Mike Sergeant said the BBC that some "ambitious officers" might be tempted to list the salaries to be used to push for higher rewards. "

"The government hopes that the opposite will happen - that reveal these names will lead to public pressure to hold down pay in senior Whitehall," he added.