Mark Byford, the BBC's deputy director general, has been made redundant, as the corporation looks to deliver on a promise to cut back senior management numbers and rein in its much-criticised executive salary bill.
Mark Thompson, the director general, is expected to announce that Byford, 52, who has worked at the BBC for almost 32 years, will leave early next summer. Sharon Baylay, the head of marketing and communications, and Lucy Adams, the human resources director, will also step down from the corporation's 10-strong executive board, on which Byford sat. Baylay and Adams will, however, stay in their jobs. The move is the latest attempt by Thompson to show critics that the BBC is willing to make cuts from rank and file staff to key lieutenants, and focus more of the licence fee on delivering programmes and services.
Byford has been a polarising figure, targeted for the scale of his pay packet and pension – he is expected to receive a pay-off of close to £1m when he leaves – but also praised for taking over as acting director general when Greg Dyke resigned over the Hutton inquiry in 2004. Byford joined the BBC in 1979, aged 20, and worked his way to executive board level and a salary package of close to £500,000. His long service also means that he has one of the corporation's most generous pension packages, worth several million.
Byford has often been in the firing line when the corporation has been criticised over salaries and expenses, most recently for claiming £5,000 for flights to South Africa to see the World Cup final. He is in charge of the BBC's journalism, and his responsibilities include editorial policy and planning for the London Olympics. His position will not be filled.
Thompson's announcement comes as BBC management battles to push through reforms to the corporation's pension scheme, and as it faces tough negotiations with Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, over the next licence fee settlement. At this year's MediaGuardian Edinburgh TV Festival in August, Thompson pledged reductions "at every level" of the organisation, including the executive board, which led to some speculation that Byford may be a casualty.
After sustained media attention on the salaries of top stars like Jonathan Ross, the BBC last year moved to inform more than 100 of its stars that pay cuts of between 25% and 40% could be in order when contracts are re-negotiated. In August Thompson warned to expect any cuts to go "a good deal further".
Earlier this year, Greg Dyke accused Thompson, his successor, of being overpaid and out of touch, claiming Thompson was on more than twice the salary he had received. In August, Thompson scrapped pension top-up payments to top executives totalling more than £1m a year, a move that will see his £838,000 remuneration package cut by 20%. He is likely to be paid close to £560,000 in the 12 months to the end of March 2011 – closer to the amount he took home in his first year as director general.
