The burgeoning cost of Scotland’s public bodies to the taxpayer was laid bare yesterday with the disclosure that at least 1,798 employees in the sector earn more than £100,000 a year.

Six public sector executive board members are paid more than Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister (£197,000) or Alex Salmond, First Minister (£145,000). A further 1,596 are paid between £80,000 and £100,000 — more than a Scottish government minister — according to the study produced by the Scottish Liberal Democrats.The total salary bill for the highest-paid is at least £400 million a year.

With the Scottish budget set to decline in real terms by up to 13 per cent by 2013, threatening frontline services, there is going to be extreme pressure on Holyrood to cut the salary bill in a sector that now employs almost one in four Scots. The study of 155 quangoes, health boards, councils, universities, colleges and government agencies in Scotland does not include the 38 still to reply to the survey.

In NHS Lothian, 412 people are paid more than £100,000 and a further 186 receive more £80,000. NHS Lanarkshire has 226 employees in the £100,000-plus bracket while NHS Highland has 146. Smaller health boards are also generous to staff. Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board pays 85 employees more than £100,000 while the figure for NHS Borders is 52. NHS Fife gives 118 staff members salaries of over £100,000.

There are also huge rewards for people employed at a senior level in higher education. The University of Edinburgh has 114 members of staff earning over £100,000 and 99 paid more than £80,000. Glasgow has 113 people earning more than £100,000 and the same number receiving over £80,000. Dundee has 51 staff in the £100,000-plus category compared with Glasgow Caledonian University with only six and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh with ten.

Among public agencies and quangos, Scottish Enterprise has seven employees earning more than £100,000 while Scottish Water has 13, including Richard Ackroyd, the chief executive, who is paid £263,000.

Local authorities surveyed appear relatively restrained. Glasgow City Council, Scotland’s biggest local authority, has seven employees earning more than £100,000 although 32 are paid in excess of £80,000. Aberdeenshire Council has eight in the former category and none in the latter. Fife Council has 11 people earning over £100,000 and 29 paid more than £80,000. North Lanarkshire Council rewards six of its staff with £100,000-plus salaries and 13 are paid more than £80,000.

The total salary bill for those in the £100,000 and over category is approaching £250 million with an average salary of £132,175. Some of those in the highest categories, such as university principals, are paid well above the average.

The information, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, prompted Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, to say that many would wonder if it was fair that such a tiny proportion received such a vast share of public money.

“Those at the top of the salary scale should be expected to shoulder a fair share of the burden in these tough times,” he said. “People at the bottom of the income scale are being threatened with losing their jobs.”

Mr Scott called on the Scottish Government to set a target in next year’s Budget to reduce what he called “the fat cat pay bill” by reducing salaries and bonuses or the number of those on high salaries. He calculated that a five per cent reduction in the total public sector pay bill would release around £20 million to provide jobs and improve skills.

In addition to Mr Ackroyd of Scottish Water, the executive medical director of NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Dr Bob Masterton, and NHS Lothian, Charles Swainson, are both paid £230,000. Jack Perry, who recently stood down as chief executive of Scottish Enterprise, received a salary of £203,000, and Philip Riddle, the chief executive of Visit Scotland, earns £146,000.

In First Minister’s Questions, Mr Salmond, replying to Mr Scott who had raised the issue of public sector pay, said that in many cases the terms and conditions of quangos and government agencies had been set by the previous executive, in which Mr Scott was a minister. He asked the Lib Dem leader: “Is Tavish Scott suggesting that we should tear up contracts that had been fixed by the last Labour-Liberal administration?”

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said last night that Scottish ministers have already agreed to take a pay freeze and had announced a freeze for senior civil servants and public officials in Scotland, following a similar announcement by the Chancellor for their counterparts south of the border.

Meanwhile, it emerged last night councillors’ salaries will be frozen for two years, if ministers accept a recommendation from the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee.

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