Scott Mills was BBC's highest earner before his sacking, new figures reveal

Former Radio 2 presenter Scott Mills was the BBC's highest earner until he was sacked in March, latest figures reveal.

Mills, 53, earned between £745,000 and £749,999 for the year ending in March 2026, according to the corporation's latest annual report (see the list of the BBC's highest-paid stars below).

He had presented the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show for just over a year, after taking over from Zoe Ball in January 2025.

Mills was sacked by the BBC shortly before it emerged that the Metropolitan Police had launched an investigation into him in 2016 over allegations of 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.

Mills' rise to the top of the list came as another departing BBC employee - former England footballer Gary Lineker - left the top 10. Lineker had been the corporation's top-paid star for the last eight years.

Mark Chapman, one of the three presenters to replace Lineker on Match Of The Day, alongside Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan, made it into 11th place on the list.

Another celebrity out of the top 10 was Zoe Ball, last year's second-highest earner. She previously hosted the Radio 2 breakfast show, before briefly moving to a Saturday afternoon show last year. She has since left the BBC, and will present on Greatest Hits Radio from September.

BBC political journalist Laura Kuenssberg was the highest-paid female staff member in the latest report.

She was one of four women on the list alongside Naga Munchetty, Fiona Bruce and Sophie Rawoth. That is a slight increase on last year's list, which featured three women.

Sara Cox, who moved from the Radio 2 drivetime slot to replace Mills earlier this month, didn't quite make it into the top 15 earners, with a salary band capped at £324,999.

Vernon Kay - who hosts Radio 2's most listened-to show according to RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research) figures - was joint fourth on the list alongside Kuenssberg.

BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James, who is particularly popular with younger audiences, rose two places from last year and is this year's second highest earner.

The third-highest paid was Northern Irish Radio 5 Live presenter Stephen Nolan.

Top talent pay slashed by half in seven years, BBC says

Responding to a question from Sky News on how the BBC can justify paying talent a premium when hundreds of millions of pounds of savings need to be made, deputy director-general Rhodri Talfan Davies said there had been "remarkable progress" over presenter pay in recent years.

He said talent above the £500,000 threshold had been reduced by 50% across the past seven years, going on: "If you look at all our on-air presenter costs over the last seven years, they've come down by about £20m, 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. 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."

The BBC is required to declare a list of salaries paid to people both on air and off air who receive more than £178,000 from licence fee revenue in the year.

However, the list does not include people who are paid through independent production companies or the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Studios.

A string of 'errors' affecting public confidence

BBC Chair Samir Shah addressed recent "broadcasting errors" at the corporation, including at Glastonbury Festival and the BAFTA film awards, saying they "affect confidence in our journalism, trust in the BBC as a public institution, and perceptions about how effectively we are held to account".

In February, a racial slur was broadcast after Tourette's campaigner John Davidson shouted at Sinners stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo as they presented the BAFTA award for special visual effects.

An involuntary verbal tic, the slur was not cut from the live broadcast, which was on a two-hour delay, and remained on iPlayer for over 12 hours.

It came after a previous 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.

There was also a breach of BBC editorial guidelines after the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone failed to disclose information about the child narrator's father's position within the Hamas-run government.

The BBC is also currently embroiled in a multi-billion-pound lawsuit with US President Donald Trump over the editing of an episode of BBC documentary series Panorama, broadcast in 2024.

Referencing the various errors, Mr Shah said: "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."

Read more: Who is Matt Brittin?

BBC boss: 'This is a moment of real jeopardy'

The report also showed that BBC TV licences have dropped by more than half a million in a single year.

While 94% of adults use BBC services per month, fewer than 80% of households pay the licence fee.

Highlighting the challenges this presents to the corporation, it said the BBC would need to reform its funding model in order to sustain its public service mission going forward.

Speaking to journalists as the report was released, the BBC's new director-general Matt Brittin said it was "a moment of real jeopardy" both for the BBC and the UK as a whole," going on to say it was also "an opportunity".

The former Google executive, who stepped into the role in May, concluded: "Reinventing the BBC to adapt to this fast-changing world is our duty and our challenge".

The BBC is facing huge cutbacks, with hundreds of jobs to be axed and many TV and radio programmes under review, as part of a major downsizing.

The month after he stepped into the role, Mr Brittin told employees that £160m of staff and non-staff cost savings would be made from across BBC News and TV and radio teams by the end of the financial year.

The huge savings plan was first announced in April, with up to 2,000 jobs to go in total - the corporation's biggest downsizing in almost 15 years.

(c) Sky News 2026: Scott Mills was BBC's highest earner before his sacking, new figures reveal