Seven top BBC executives who have either left the BBC or announced their decision to do so ran up expenses of £25,000 in the last six months of 2015.
The biggest bill by far belonged to Wendy Darke, the outgoing head of the BBC’s natural history unit, who claimed almost £11,000 for travel and hospitality, according to official BBC figures published on the expenses of the corporation’s top executives.
Darke, who announced her departure last week, is in competition for Alan Yentob’s dubious honour as the corporation’s king of cabs, having booked 92 in the last six months of 2015 at a cost of £3050.99.
Danny Cohen, the former director of BBC television who left last November, notched up £4,045 in expenses in that period.
BBC drama chief Polly Hill, who announced that she was defecting to ITV last week, ran up expenses totalling just under £3,100, almost two-thirds of which was due to a trip to the Emmy awards in September.
Peter Salmon, the BBC veteran most latterly the director of BBC Studios, filed £2,601 worth of expenses in the six-month period. Salmon announced last month that he was leaving to join Big Brother and MasterChef maker Endemol Shine as global creative chief.
BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw, whose responsibilities included Top Gear, ran up a bill of almost £2,000, including £70 for flowers. She was restructured out of her role and left the BBC in January.
Interestingly, the only one of the “big seven” to not run up any expenses was former BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow, who officially left in January.
Hadlow had been given a special projects role where she spent much of her time at her home in Bath, with a £235,000 salary, attracting criticism from some quarters.
Yentob, who stood down as creative director late last year but remains a presenter of BBC show Imagine, ran up a bill of £2,574.18 in the last six months of 2015, according to information disclosed by the corporation. One entry in his expenses filing includes £22 for “BBC speech prep”.
In a statement accompanying the disclosures, a BBC spokesperson said: “We have announced a series of proposals to further tighten up our rules around expenses claims, as part of plans to create a simpler, more efficient, BBC.”
Separately on Monday, unions representing BBC staff threatened to ballot for strike action over a new staff expenses deal that they say will leave them out of pocket.
“These are legitimate expenses which staff incur as they do their jobs, often during unsocial hours,” said Sue Harris, national broadcasting officer at the National Union of Journalists. “Meanwhile, the management continues to receive perks such as car allowances even if they don’t have a car. The talks to discuss the changes of rates have been a farce and our patience has run out.”
Staff claim the corporation has not updated rates for meal and other allowances for 15 years, with new caps on some expenses reducing the level they can claim on some things.
“Staff are very angry at the proposals and despite the unions raising objections to the changes, the BBC is simply not listening and is intent on ploughing ahead,” said Helen Ryan, supervisory official at broadcasting union Bectu. “Unless the BBC sees sense and listens to the staff and their trade unions, we have no alternative but to ballot for industrial action.”
In response, a BBC spokesperson said: “These proposals will help create a simpler, more efficient, BBC while ensuring staff are not out of pocket for the essential costs incurred in doing their jobs.
“These expense changes will apply to all staff, including senior managers. We ended car allowances and private medical insurance for new senior managers over three years ago.”
