Bonuses rain down on Met Office staff

RECORD rainfall this summer has done nothing to dampen the spirits at the Met Office where staff have been handed huge bonus payments.

Sunseekers enjoy the hot weather in Brighton Sunseekers enjoy the hot weather in Brighton

Staff at the government agency shared “performance” payments of £3.48million last year, a rise of three per cent on the previous 12 months.

It managed to award itself the record performance payouts even though the Met Office had failed to accurately estimate the chances of rain.

Despite this shortfall, staff have scooped up thousands of pounds in other “targets”.

MP Sammy Wilson said: “I think the whole bonus culture in the public sector is unjustified but the bonuses at the Met Office just defy imagination.

“A lot of public bodies and organisations rely on the accuracy of the Met Office’s forecasts. In Northern Ireland

I think the whole bonus culture in the public sector is unjustified

MP Sammy Wilson

we recently had no warning of heavy rainfall until after it had started raining.

"Bonuses do not seem to be attached in any real way to the performance of people.”

Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Not only has the weather failed to deliver this

year but too often so has the forecasts of the Met Office.

“While ordinary taxpayers are struggling and tightening their own belts, it is shocking that the Met Office thinks bonuses are appropriate.”

Last year John Hirst, the Met Office head, took home a salary of £150,000 and another £40,000 as part of bonus

payments.

A spokesman for the Met Office said:

“This year we met 14 out of 16 individual forecasting targets which, in the main, relate to the business performance

measures for delivering to customers on time and in full.”

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