BBC comes clean on high life of its top bosses

FIVE-STAR hotels, bottles of vintage champagne and private Cessna plane trips: welcome to the world of BBC expenses.

After responding to calls for greater openness and accountability, the corporation yesterday published on its website the expenses claims of its most senior executives over the past five years. They totalled £363,963.

The data offers an extraordinarily detailed snapshot of the inner workings of the BBC and lays bare the lavish culture at the top of the organisation.

Director-general Mark Thompson used £2,236.90 of licence fee-payers' money to fly his family home from holiday in the middle of Radio 2's "obscene phone calls" row involving Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

Bosses at the corporation splurged thousands on their biggest stars, lavishing them with expensive bouquets of flowers and bottles of vintage champagne.

Ross was given a £100 bouquet a month before his £18 million contract was unveiled, and £1,137 was spent celebrating Terry Wogan's knighthood.

The BBC also revealed details of executives' salaries for the first time yesterday, showing that dozens of its employees earn far more than the Prime Minister's £189,994.

Mr Thompson described the release of the expenses information as a "significant advance in openness at the BBC", although full details of top stars' salaries will remain confidential.

Notes on the claim for flying Mr Thompson's family home as anger grew over the Brand/Ross scandal read: "The chairman of the audit committee of the executive board agreed that the expense of cutting a family holiday short would be met by the BBC in advance of the claim being made. The chairman of the BBC Trust was also informed."

On the day his family flew back to the UK – 30 October 2008 – Mr Thompson also claimed £500 for hotel rooms in the towns of Siracusa and Ragusa in Sicily, where he is believed to have been spending his holiday, and a further £206 for what was described in the accompanying notes as "holiday cut short".

It was not the first time Mr Thompson had been forced to cut short a holiday, his expenses reveal. He put the £1,277.71 cost of chartering a private plane on expenses in 2004, as he had to deal with an "urgent staff issue" in London. This is understood to refer to concerns about the expenses of Alan Yentob, a senior BBC executive, who was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

The director-general claimed £99.99 last year for a bottle of Krug Grande Cuvée champagne – an 80th birthday gift for entertainer Bruce Forsyth – and £500 for a Christmas dinner for BBC executives in 2007.

The board-level claims over the past five years include numerous staff dinners costing more than £1,000, as well as hotels, taxis, airline tickets, parking charges – and a £400 cake.

The expenses claims were published in spreadsheets and, unlike MPs' heavily redacted claims released last week, do not include receipts.

Among the eye-catching claims is the £1,917.09 spent by Jana Bennett, the BBC's former head of TV and now its director of Vision, on a leaving dinner at the fashionable private club Soho House for Alison Sharman, a BBC executive poached by ITV.

Ashley Highfield, the BBC's former head of new media and technology, claimed £200 for an iPod, as well as for dinners and hotels around the world, including a "group meal after 11 hours on duty" at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for 29 people, which cost £1,430.08.

Jeremy Paxman, the Newsnight presenter, enjoyed a lavish dinner with Ms Bennett that cost £231.55.

By comparison, the BBC's former Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, who was held captive for four months, was treated to a "welcome back lunch" by Mark Byford, the deputy director-general, which cost only £37.90.

Ms Bennett had a number of interesting expense claims, including £500 to cover the theft of her handbag while on official business. Notes on the claim said: "The BBC decided to pay half the cost of replacing the property and cash stolen."

She also charged £35 to have her hair styled for a TV interview and nearly £190 for vaccinations ahead of a trip overseas. While on a trip to meet studio bosses in Los Angeles in May 2007, she claimed more than £1,300 for a stay at the luxury Raffles l'Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills.

Ms Bennett, who earns £406,000 a year, spent more than £2,000 in May 2007 hosting a "talent" dinner with 22 attendees. Then in July that year, she claimed £1,500 for a leaving party for Jay Hunt, who is now BBC1 controller. Ms Bennett also spent £400 on a cake to celebrate the end of the BBC's series Any Dream Will Do, for a party for contestants' families.

Meanwhile, Jenny Abramsky, formerly the corporation's director of audio and music, spent nearly £550 in December 2007 on an internal Christmas lunch.

Even charitable efforts clocked up significant expenses. Tim Davie, who replaced Ms Abramsky as director of audio and music, spent nearly £130 on a discussion on Sport Relief and also charged £407.25 for a "Children in Need business discussion".

The corporation revealed the figures in response to Freedom of Information requests and pressure for more clarity.

Mr Thompson said: "Public expectations about openness, trustworthiness and every kind of value for money are becoming more trenchant, more insistent and more vocal than ever before."

Last night, however, Lord Foulkes, who had attacked media presenters for sneering at democracy, in an exchange with the BBC presenter Carrie Gracie during the MPs' expenses row, said he was disappointed at the limited level of exposure.

The Labour MSP said the public deserved to know what top stars were paid. He said: "I will be pushing for greater transparency. The public is forced to pay a licence fee and they deserve as much transparency in matters of pay and expenses from the BBC as from their MP or MSP."