£230k BBC boss pays £800 of taxpayers’ cash for 7 taxi rides
THE BBC has been accused of ‘frittering away’ money after one of its executives spent nearly £800 of licence fee payers’ cash on just seven taxis.
Mark Linsey, who is paid £230,000 a year for his role as controller of entertainment commissioning, charged the corporation £791 for the journeys – an average of £113 each.
He booked the cars directly through the corporation’s centralised system in the last four months of 2014 and his most expensive one cost an astonishing £142.
The BBC – which has claimed that it is trying to cut expenses – did not reveal where Mr Linsey was going, but it is understood he lives in Sevenoaks, Kent.
His bill was revealed as the corporation published the latest round of expense claims filed by its most senior executives
‘There has got to be some restraint’
– and Mr Linsey was not alone in enjoying expensive taxi journeys.
His colleague Wendy Darke, who heads the Natural History Unit in Bristol, charged the BBC £207 and £233 for two cab rides in December last year.
The trips were among more than 100 claims that she made for transport over a period of around six months, including £ 1,888 of taxis booked through the BBC’s centralised system.
Danny Cohen, the BBC’s £320,000-a-year director of television, racked up a taxi bill of £1,086, while creative director Alan Yentob spent £1,240 on taxis. Their bills helped to drive up claims for transport by around 16 per cent.
Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, urged the BBC to ‘ slam the brakes’ on this sort of spending. ‘It takes some doing to run up a bill of this extraordinary size, and licence fee payers will be furious that their hard- earned cash is being frittered away so readily,’ he said. ‘The BBC is a national organisation so some travel is inevitable, but there has got to be some restraint when it comes to costs. The BBC should find cheaper ways of getting staff around the country, or sympathy for the TV tax will continue to wane.’ The latest revelations come amid mounting concern over the BBC’s spending habits, which are likely to become a major factor in the negotiations over its funding arrangements, due to be renewed next year.
The powerful Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee said the National Audit Office should have ‘unfettered’ access to the BBC’s books to help stem spending.
John Whittingdale, the former committee chairman, has also warned that the corporation should prepare for the end of the licence fee within the next decade.
He was appointed Culture Secretary this month and is leading the Government’s negotiations with the BBC over funding.
The BBC insisted its spending record has improved since it started publishing expenses. A spokesman said: ‘We have cut our taxi spend by 17 per cent since the same period in 2009/10 and have strict rules on when taxis are allowed.’