BBC spent £16m on redundancy payments

The BBC spent in excess of £16 million over the past three years on redundancy payments to 115 senior executives, including £600,000 to one individual.

The Daily Telegraph secured the BBC's payment information for the three financial years from April 1, 2007, to March 31, 2010, following a Freedom of Information Act request.

Any BBC employees who are made redundant are entitled to receive one month's salary for each year of continuous service up to a maximum of 24 years.

Payments made in 2009 are thought to include £250,000 to Sue Lynas, head of marketing and communications for BBC radio, and £364,000 to the corporation's former head of religion Michael Wakelin.

The BBC has pledged to reduce its senior management pay bill by 25% by December this year and it will also reduce senior headcount by 18% as part of efforts to secure almost £2 billion worth of savings by April 2013.

However, the BBC is expected to issue further major redundancy payments to deputy director general Mark Byford and marketing chief Sharon Baylay when they leave the corporation this spring.

John Whittingdale MP, chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, said that the level of the BBC's redundancy payouts is a cause for concern.

"Any outside observer would find it extraordinary that the BBC is willing to spend such huge amounts of licence fee payers' money on redundancy payments," he said.

Disclosed figures for the three-year period also revealed that the BBC spent an average of £9 million a year on external consultants, totalling £27,979,004.