UK gov 'Spads' hefty salaries released/buried

The most powerful people you've never heard of

By John Oates, 20th July 2011

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The Coalition government has released the names of all its special advisers who are paid more than £58,200.

David Cameron has two men on salaries just under the ceiling for the posts. Craig Oliver and Andrew Cooper each trouser £140,000 a year and another adviser, Edward Llewellyn, gets £125,000.

Seventeen other Spads to the PM get between £40,000 and £100,000.

Deputy PM Nick Clegg scrapes by with just five Spads. Top of Clegg's charts is Jonny Oates (no relation) who picks up £98,500 a year; he was previously a LibDem press officer.

Spads have five paybands: level 0 is anything up to £40,352; level 1 is £40,352 to £54,121. The scheme ceiling is £142,668.

Their duties vary from sharing rooms with William Hague to providing political advice.

The Coalition said the total bill for 13 May 2010 to 31 March 2011 is £4.5m, compared to £6.8m for 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010. Another £2.1m was shelled out between 1 April and 12 May 2010, £1.8m in severance payments.

You can download the full list from Dods here (3-page PDF/6.2MB). ®

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