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Over 9,000 people working in the public sector earn more than the Prime Minister (£142,500), according to the most comprehensive review ever done. The extensive review of top public sector pay carried out for ´óÏó´«Ã½ One's Panorama in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism also reveals that over 38,000 earn over £100,000, and 1,000 earn over £200,000.

The Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, told the programme: "You don't need to pay stupendous amounts to get good people. You can square the circle of having really good people not on telephone number salaries and massive built-in bonuses. That public service ethos is very important. People will come and work in a public sector for salaries that aren't competitive in a private sector sense."

The exclusive database contains total remuneration details (combining base pay, bonuses and extra pay where provided) based on the responses of over 2,400 Freedom of Information requests made to public bodies across the UK between February and September 2010.

The key findings will air tonight on Panorama – Because We're Worth It: The Taxpayers' Rich List (Monday 20 September at 8.30pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One). The full findings will be available on the Panorama website at: bbc.co.uk/panorama.

Panorama reporter Vivian White examines the wage packets of key public sector workers – council chiefs, headteachers, policemen, and ´óÏó´«Ã½ bosses – who all get paid more than the Prime Minister, and asks: Are they really worth it?

The database includes the details of the vast proportion of public sector bodies across the UK but excludes a small number of publicly-owned commercial concerns, such as Network Rail, Royal Mail, Channel 4 and the publicly-owned banks.

Iain Overton, Editor at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, based at City University, explains why he wanted to create the public pay database.

"Given the Government's own findings that the salaries of the top 10% of earners in the public sector have risen by over 50% in the last decade, the Bureau wanted to know how many top earners there were and what they were doing for their money," he says.

Panorama – Because We're Worth It: The Taxpayers' Rich List, Monday 20 September, 8.30pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One.

Notes to Editors

Any use of information in this release must credit ´óÏó´«Ã½ One's Panorama in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

An extensive breakdown of the public sector figures is available through the website.

PH