Civil Service bonuses under fire

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Shadow Treasury chief secretary Philip Hammond said taxpayers would be "horrified" at the figures, which showed the average bonus for senior civil servants in most departments was more than £7,000.

Mandarins in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport pocketed average payments of more than £11,000, with senior colleagues in the Home Office and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) both averaging over £9,000 each.

The figures, which were obtained by the Tories through Parliamentary questions, showed the Ministry of Defence paid out the most in bonus payments during 2007/08 - £41.3 million.

Bonuses to staff at the Department for Work and Pensions totalled £36.6 million, including £3.7 million to workers at the soon-to-be-scrapped Child Support Agency.

Colleagues at the Treasury racked up £21.7 million, of which more than £19 million went to staff at HM Revenue and Customs - despite the agency losing discs containing the personal data of more than 25 million people late last year.

Civil servants at the Home Office got £5.7 million, staff at the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly DTI) were given £4.4 million, and those at Defra trousered £3.9 million.

Mr Hammond said: "Many families who are finding themselves squeezed between stagnant earnings and soaring living costs will be horrified by the use of £128 million of taxpayers' money to pay bonuses to civil servants.

"With Government failing on so many fronts, this looks like a 'something for nothing' culture."