NAO 'should examine BBC pay deals'

A select committee of MPs has argued that the National Audit Office (NAO) should be able to scrutinise individual salaries of BBC radio employees.

The public accounts committee has complained that the NAO could not properly examine the running of programmes because of confidentiality agreements included in contracts with presenters, the BBC reports.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "The NAO has a statutory right to examine the details of expenditure in any government department. It has no such right of audit access to the BBC, despite the fact that the corporation is funded with over £3bn of public money each year.

"It is disgraceful that the NAO's lack of statutory audit access to the BBC puts the corporation in the position to dictate what the spending watchdog can and cannot see."

The BBC Trust said that it could not disclose the details of presenter salaries for February's reports because of "legal obligations to staff".

Trustee Jeremy Peat said: "We believe our approach in this case was in line with the Data Protection Act and information commissioner's guidance."

The NAO has claimed that a Trust-commissioned report revealed that top BBC stars were being paid more than their peers at commercial radio stations.

There has been widespread speculation that presenters including Chris Moyles and Jonathan Ross will have their salaries cut when their new contracts are negotiated.