Time for the NHS to come clean on its tax avoiding bosses

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An amazing piece of evidence revealing that they were up to 2,400 off pay roll people in the NHS was slipped into an inquiry by the House of Lords by the Department of Health last week.

The findings published today in a report by Exaro News reveals that as many NHS staff as Whitehall staff were avoiding paying tax and national insurance at source – bringing the total in government to nearly 5000 in 2012.

Now no doubt some people on short-term contracts can justify this but what is becoming increasingly clear from the evidence submitted by the Department of Health ( see page 91 onwards) that many do not.

The worst offenders appear to be high earners at the top of NHS Foundation Trusts – where over a third -51 out of 147 – had someone at the top avoiding paying tax and national insurance at source. Someone was even off pay roll and claiming a full pension from the taxpayer as well!

 Monitor,the regulatory authority for NHS Foundation Trusts, is currently conducting an inquiry into exactly who is benefiting – and as a result numbers are shrinking.

 But we don’t know yet whether Monitor is going to name and shame the trusts and the people taking advantage of this tax loophole. Well if the organisation  has got any teeth it should be like the National Audit Office  and publish a full and detailed report. Avoiding tax while working for the cash strapped NHS is particularly nasty and greedy and should be stamped out. Let’s see if Monitor is going to do its job.

Phone Hacking Trial: Andy Coulson, News Of The World had culture of “secrecy” and “intrigue” – Martin Hickman

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Andy Coulson begins his defence by telling how reporters jealously guarded their contacts amid clashes over egos and rivalry across the newsroom

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media_andy_coulson_2Day 90, Part 1:    The News of the World had a culture of “secrecy” and “intrigue” where reporters closely guarded their contacts, Andy Coulson told the phone hacking trial today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: News of the World exec was “gentleman,” says Sara Payne – Martin Hickman

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Sarah Payne’s mum testifies for ” sweet natured” Rebekah Brooks and ” gentleman” Stuart Kuttner.
Fact: Her details were discovered by Operation Weeting on hacker Glenn Mulcaire’s files.

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Sara-PayneDay 89, Part 2:  The mother of murdered eight-year-old Sarah Payne today paid tribute to two defendants at the phone hacking trial.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Former PCC boss pays tribute to alleged phone hacker – Martin Hickman

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A strong defence of Stuart Kuttner from Guy Black, the Conservative peer, and former director of the Press Complaints Commission.

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lord-blackDay 89: A newspaper executive on trial at the Old Bailey was an influential behind-the-scenes advisor to the Press Complaints Commission, a former PCC boss told the court today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Kuttner: I didn’t need to check payments totalling thousands of pounds – Martin Hickman

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A man in charge of a £30m budget paid all his hacks expenses on trust -fascinating insight into business methods.

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Stuart KuttnerDay 88, Part 2: One of Rupert Murdoch’s senior executives did not check payments by the News of the World’s reporters because he trusted them, he told the phone hacking trial today.

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Kuttner’s Notes of Conversation with Goodman Just After his Arrest

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Here is the News International hand written document released by the Crown Prosecution Service and written by Stuart Kuttner that contains the evidence that Andy Coulson knew about information leaked from MI6 bugging reaching the paper

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As discussed in evidence yesterday and today, the CPS have released a redacted version of Stuart Kuttner‘s contemporaneous notes of his discussion with former NOTW Royal Reporter Clive Goodman, dated 10th August 2006, soon after he was released from his arrest and questioning by police in the initial Operation Caryatid investigation into phone hacking.

This evidence is currently being adduced by Andrew Edis QC, as he cross examines Kuttner in the witness box. The original pages are from the NI archives, where Kuttner explains he filed most his notebooks. The transcript is an agreed document

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UK Press Gazette recognises 50 journos as top Tweeters and social media reporters

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This week – a bit to my surprise – I found myself given an accolade by Press Gazette as one of the 50 top reporters on social media. Given I use to tweets to promote stories on this blog and on Exaro News I was quite chuffed to say the least.
But I was even more pleased that the winner was Peter Jukes who rightly deserved his award for his marathon tweeting of the hacking trial – now over 300,000 tweets- and his persistence and innovation in raising cash to do this through crowd sourcing.
This seems to me an excellent use of Twitter and social media to provide bite sized reporting from the courts of a controversial trial as it happens. It is even more remarkable given the dangers of contempt and the difficulties of producing fast, accurate copy under pressure. So hats off to him!
As for the rest I was in good company with two top awards going to Channel Four News- Alex Thomson and Faisal Islam, one to Lucy Manning at ITN News and one to the hyperactive Paul Waugh, the editor of Politics Home.
It was good to see the spread of the awards – which covered virtually the entire political team at The Sun, to Paul Lewis of the Guardian as well as a bevy of sports reporters from the Guardian to the Northern Echo and Daily Telegraph. and a very interesting runner-up Alexandra Rucki from the London Evening Standard.
Well done Press Gazette for an interesting innovation – the new media is definitely the way forward.

Phone Hacking Trial: Reporter: Coulson knew about MI6 buggings – Martin Hickman

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An extraordinary disclosure about Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, being told by Clive Goodman that he got MI6 intercepts

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Clive GoodmanDay 88:  Andy Coulson, the News of the World’s then editor, was alleged by a senior journalist to have been part of a criminal plot to receive information covertly obtained from MI6 wire tappings, the phone hacking trial heard today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: News of the World exec: I helped ‘phone hacker’ out of duty – Martin Hickman

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The kind side of Stuart Kuttner helping Goodman as he reels from the shock of phone hacking and his arrest

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Stuart KuttnerDay 87: A senior News of the World executive lent his personal support to a reporter arrested for phone hacking because he and News International liked to help senior staff in difficulty, he told the Old Bailey today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Kuttner, I would have told royal reporter to “clear off – Martin Hickman

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So Stuart Kuttner proposed a 50 per cent cut to the £100,000 a year paid to phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire and can’t remember why it was rejected. Interesting!

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Stuart KuttnerDay 86, Part 3: Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, told a court today that he would have told any reporter asking to bribe police “ to clear off .”

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