We reveal the BBC stars who AREN’T on the list of high earners – and the loopholes keeping their salaries secret

THE BBC has attempted to be fully transparent with how its leading talents are paid by revealing their salaries in a list of 96 today - but all is not how it seems.

Why do Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch and Top Gear host Matt LeBlanc not feature? And why does the list say that Graham Norton earns £900,000 when it's widely known he is actually paid £2.5million for his work with the BBC?

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Mega stars like Great British Bake Off's Mary Berry are also not named.

This is because the BBC is not giving us the whole picture with the list, which claims to reveal all those paid more than £150,000.

The list we have seen today - which has only two women in its top 12 - does not include the money paid out by the BBC through its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, or the money paid by the BBC to independent production companies for their shows.

For example the BBC pays large sums to independent producers for rights to show programmes such as Sherlock and BBC Question Time.

It is then up to the independent production companies to decide how much of that fee, funded by license fee payers, goes to stars like Cumberbatch and David Dibmleby.

The same goes for Planet Earth, which is why national treasure David Attenborough is also not on the list.

VALUE FOR MONEY?

READ the full list showing all 96 BBC stars earning more than £150,000 here

The list also does not clearly showcase the pay of some stars who are featured in it.

Graham Norton, for example, is paid £900,000 for his work on BBC Radio and presenting the Eurovision Song Contest.

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However for his chat show, The Graham Norton Show, it is understood that the BBC pays his production company.

This means that his actual total pay of £2.5million is not detailed in the list.

It is understood that Mary Berry's salary is not featured on the talent list because she too is paid via her production company.

The way in which the list has been presented has now been criticised by Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons culture select committee.

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He has welcomed the release but called for more stars' salaries to be made public.

Mr Collins pointed out in an interview with ITV News that David Dimbleby was not included in the figures because his show Question Time is produced by a separate company.

Mr Collins said: "That can't be right, we need to look at how we include very high earners."

Responding to the criticism, a BBC spokesman told The Sun Online: "The Government has said we only need to disclose payments made to individuals directly by the licence fee.

"Some well-known names on the BBC are on programmes made by independent production companies. We pay a fee to the company for the delivery of the programmes.

"The decision on what to pay the talent and the contractual obligations rests with the independent producers rather than the BBC."

The BBC has also found itself in the midst of a gender pay row following the release of the list.

Here is a breakdown of the 96 names of on-air talent by gender who earned more than £150,000:

• 62 are male and 34 female.
• There are no females listed in any category above £500,000.
• The highest paid female is Strictly Come Dancing co-host Claudia Winkleman, who is in the £450,000-£499,999 band.
• One woman is listed in the £400,000-£449,999 band (Alex Jones) and three are listed in the £350,000-£399,999 band (Fiona Bruce, Tess Daly and Vanessa Feltz).
• Half of all the women named on the list are in the £150,000-£199,999 band. A total of 17 women appear in this band, along with 22 men.
• Of the 34 females named on the list, five are non-white: Today presenter Mishal Husain, EastEnders actors Tameka Empson and Diane Parish, newsreader Moira Stuart, and Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty.