Whitehall high-flyers may get 50% rise

Senior civil servants could earn annual salaries of almost £200,000 under plans to recruit and reward top-quality staff.

The Senior Salaries Review Body will report its recommendations for the pay of Whitehall officials next month. Under proposals before the body, officials who presently earn up to £127,000 a year would receive an inflation-busting rise in basic pay, as well as "significant" bonuses of around 10 per cent.

The bonuses would be linked to performance, in what is likely to be seen as further evidence of government attempts to shake up the Civil Service.

The proposals, contained in a consultation paper passed to the review body, concern the 3,000 senior civil servants below the top rank of permanent secretary.

The first pay band, covering 2,300 civil servants, would range from £49,000 to £87,500. Six hundred more senior employees would receive between £67,500 and £129,000, while 100 officials in the next band would get £83,000 to £183,000, a rise in maximum pay of almost 50 per cent.

A special Whitehall committee decides the pay of individual permanent secretaries, but their pay band is set by the pay review body. Any decision to increase the salaries of other staff is likely to lead to a review of their pay.