The film industry body points out a significant restructure means only two members of staff should be included on the list.

The UK Film Council has clarified that just two of its staff are now paid £150,000 or more a year after the Cabinet Office revealed a list of high earners across the country’s public bodies.

UKFC chief executive John Woodward, head of business affairs Will Evans, Sally Caplan, the former head of the Premiere Fund, and former head of the Development Fund Tanya Seghatchian, now head of the UKFC’s new Film Fund, were all included on the list. Woodward was noted in the salary band £170,000 - £174,000; while Evans was included in the £155,000 to £159,000 bracket.

A UKFC spokesperson pointed out that the body has made significant changes and the inclusion of all four people on the list was no longer accurate. “The UKFC stripped 20% out of our overheads, restructuring and streamlining the organisation in the process. As part of this process, the Head of the Premiere Fund and Head of Development posts have both ceased. The two other posts that remain in the current financial year are the Chief Executive and the Head of Business Affairs, a role which requires a senior lawyer with significant commercial experience. The salaries of both the Chief Executive and the Head of Business Affairs were frozen in 2009/10 and that freeze continues in 2010/11.”

Seghatchian is still at the UK Film Council but in a different role and at a lower salary. “She was appointed to the new role of Head of the Film Fund on April 1 2010 on a substantially reduced salary level.  As a result, her current salary does not now fall into this category,” the UKFC spokesperson added.

The decision to release the list, which included more than 300 high earners in Non Departmental Public Bodies or quangos, is part of the new Coalition government’s transparency drive.

Commenting the release of the list, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude, who chairs the new Public Sector Transparency Board, said: “Yet again we have shown we are absolutely committed to acting quickly on pledges in our Coalition Agreement to release information that will allow everyone to hold their politicians and public bodies to account.”

Topics