Name and shame fat cat bureaucrats, Number 10 told

The Information Commissioner's Office has told the Cabinet Office to release salary details on 24 people earning more than £150,000 a year who refused to have their details released.

Salary details for high-earning civil servants were released in July 2010, but 24 public servants wanted their pay kept secret.

Prime Minister David Cameron made much of his promise to publish all such information. The names, job titles and salaries for hundreds of the over-paid best-paid public servants were released as promised, but the Cabinet Office withheld some names.

The list did include some 18 members of the Cabinet Office earning between £150,000 and £235,000, along with dozens of other public servants.

The ICO was responding to a Freedom of Information request which the Cabinet Office turned down in August last year.

The Cabinet Office now has 35 days to release the information or appeal the decision.

ICO boss Christopher Graham's salary was increased to £140,000 a year in late 2007. ®