Former Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills was the BBC‘s highest earner before he was sacked over an historic sex abuse allegation.
The 53-year-old made between £745,000 and £749,999 for the year ending in March, according to the corporation’s Annual Report.
Mills was fired by the BBC shortly before it emerged the Metropolitan Police had launched an investigation into him in 2016 over serious sexual offences involving a boy aged under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
The police investigation was closed in 2019 after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges, and is reportedly considering legal action.
The Southampton-born presenter’s most recent pay packet was a big increase on his wage from the previous year, when he was the BBC’s 11th highest earner alongside Naga Munchetty with a salary of between £355,000 and £359,999.
Mills was paid the huge amount for his work on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show – which he began presenting in January 2025 after his predecessor Zoe Ball stepped down – as well as the Pop: Top 10 podcast he hosted with Rylan Clark and other public engagements.
Former England footballer Gary Lineker, once the corporation’s highest paid star, earned between £325,000 and £329,999 for the year to March 2026, making him the 15th highest earner despite having left the BBC in May last year.
He had a salary of between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999 in the previous annual report.
Lineker’s most recent earnings came from his work on Premier League highlights show Match Of The Day, and other football coverage.
1) Former BBC Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills earned between £745,000 and £749,999
2) BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James earned between £440,000 and £444,999
3) Northern Irish presenter Stephen Nolan had a salary of between £425,000 and £429,999
Lineker was not the only high earner to depart the BBC, as radio presenter Ms Ball no longer features on the list.
She was the second highest paid star in the previous year, and will now present an afternoon show on Greatest Hits Radio from September.
Match Of The Day pundit and former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer saw his pay decrease from between £440,000 and £444,999 last year, to between £390,000 and £394,999, making him sixth on the list.
And political journalist Laura Kuenssberg was the highest paid female staff member with a salary of between £405,000 and £409,999 in the latest report.
The second highest-paid staff member was BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James, who earned between £440,000 and £444,999, while the third highest paid was Northern Irish radio presenter Stephen Nolan, with a salary of between £425,000 and £429,999.
Ms Kuenssberg was joint-fourth on the list with Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay.
Seventh on the list was journalist Justin Webb with a salary between £375,000 and £379,999, and eighth was Ms Munchetty with a salary of between £360,000 and £364,999.
The top ten was completed by Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce, with a salary of between £345,000 and £349,999, placing her ninth; and journalist Sophie Raworth in tenth with a salary of between £340,000 and £344,999.
Four women featured in this year’s top ten, up from three last year.
The list does not include stars who are paid through independent production companies or the corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Studios.
The broadcaster is required to declare a list of salaries paid to staff both on-air and off-air who receive more than £178,000 from licence fee revenue in the year.
Speaking ahead of the Annual Report’s release, deputy director-general Rhodri Talfan Davies said he felt there had been ‘remarkable progress’ on salaries, claiming talent above the £500,000 threshold had been reduced by 50 per cent across the past seven years.
He said: ‘If you look at all our on-air presenter costs over the last seven years, they’ve come down by about £20million pounds, so we have been focused on it, there is always a balancing act.
‘We want to be a broadcaster that can attract the best talent, but we’re also very mindful of the financial pressures that we’re facing.
‘But I think we’re striking that balance very, very carefully, and I think you’ll see that downward trend continuing in the months to come.’
Mills was questioned under caution by police in 2018 but the case was rejected by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2019 due to a lack of evidence. The BBC admitted that it knew about the allegations as far back as 2017.
The presenter maintains he was unfairly dismissed in March and is now suing the BBC – with his legal team at the London-based firm Level Law corresponding with the corporation.
Friends of Mills believe he was used as a ‘scapegoat’ by the corporation’s then outgoing director-general Tim Davie, who took a zero-tolerance approach after a string of recent scandals relating to Huw Edwards, Gregg Wallace and Jermaine Jenas.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s chairman said today that serious ‘broadcasting errors’ by the corporation, including at Glastonbury and the Bafta film awards, ‘affect confidence in our journalism, trust in the BBC as a public institution, and perceptions about how effectively we are held to account’.
The broadcaster allowed a racial slur to be broadcast during its coverage of the Bafta film awards in February.
During the award ceremony, campaigner John Davidson, who has Tourette’s, could be heard shouting as Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo as they presented the award for special visual effects.
The involuntary verbal tic was not edited out of the broadcast, which was on a two-hour delay.
Mr Davie, who announced his resignation in November 2025 and stepped down in April, subsequently said the BBC ‘profoundly regrets’ the incident and added that it was ‘a genuine mistake’, which ‘should never have been broadcast’.
It came after a previous editing incident, which saw the BBC face criticism for continuing to livestream the performance of punk duo Bob Vylan as they led chants of ‘death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]’ at last year’s Glastonbury Festival.
The BBC is also currently embroiled in a lawsuit with US President Donald Trump over an episode of BBC documentary series Panorama, broadcast in 2024.
4=) Radio 2 presenter Vernon Kay earned £405,000 to £409,999 in the latest BBC pay list
4=) Laura Kuenssberg also earned £405,000 to £409,999, up from £395,000 to £399,999
6) Match Of The Day football pundit Alan Shearer was paid between £440,000 and £444,999
Mr Trump launched a $10billion (£7.5billion) lawsuit, claiming the programme had given the impression he encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021 after he lost the election to Joe Biden.
Writing in the BBC’s annual report, chairman Samir Shah said: ‘The challenges faced by the BBC over the past year have been significant – from the Panorama edit of President Trump’s speech on January 6 2021 and the breach of our Editorial Guidelines by Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, to the serious broadcasting errors at Glastonbury and the Bafta film awards.
‘We know that people care deeply about these mistakes. They affect confidence in our journalism, trust in the BBC as a public institution, and perceptions about how effectively we are held to account. The Board is acutely aware of the standards the BBC must set.
‘I am confident that the changes we have now introduced will ensure that swift, appropriate and transparent action is taken to address editorial issues as effectively as possible, whenever they occur.’
An internal BBC review of the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, concluded it breached editorial guidelines on accuracy, by failing to disclose information about the child narrator’s father’s position within the Hamas-run government.
