Home Office staff get big bonuses despite cutbacks

Hundreds of thousands of pounds in bonuses are to be paid to Home Office staff this year despite the Government's clampdown on public spending.

The handouts will amount to four per cent of the department's wage bill for senior civil servants.

Their size was revealed today by immigration minister Damien Green as he appeared before the Commons home affairs committee.

He told MPs the payments amounted to a "cut" in the civil servants' income because this year's awards would be less than half the amount paid for the previous 12 months. A total of £779,000 will be given in bonuses compared with £1.4 million last year.

Several members of the committee reacted with incredulity, questioning why bonuses appeared to be awarded automatically, rather than earned. Mr Green vowed to seek to curb the amount paid in future. He added: "8.6 per cent of the pay bill had been set aside for performance bonuses but only four per cent is being spent, which is less than half. They will get less money than they did last year."

Committee chairman Keith Vaz pointed out such payments should not be an entitlement, adding: "It is not a pay cut." Tory MP Aidan Burley asked: "Surely a bonus is not compulsory, it is discretionary?"

UK Border Agency chief Lin Homer, also appearing before MPs, disclosed she had received a bonus "in the region of £10,000 to £15,000" last year, on top of her £200,000 salary.

Departments including the Home Office have been told to prepare for major budget cuts. There have already been warnings of a big reduction in police numbers.