The Home Office’s top civil servant received a £455,000 pay package including a £20,000 bonus as small boat arrivals spiralled.
On top of his £200,000 annual salary Sir Matthew Rycroft received a £50,000 ‘exit payment’ – of which £30,000 was tax-free – when he stepped down as permanent secretary at the end of March.
The Home Office’s annual accounts – which set out sums in £5,000 brackets – showed the mandarin received a performance-related bonus payment of £20,000 to £25,000.
It was significantly higher than his £5,000 to £10,000 bonus the previous year.
From the start of the financial year covered by the report to the date of Sir Matthew’s departure on March 28, official figures show 38,023 small boat migrants reached Britain.
It was a rise of 26 per cent on the 30,288 who arrived in the equivalent period in 2023-24.
Sir Matthew also received £179,000 in pension benefits for the year.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office’s former permanent secretary, received a remuneration package of £455,000 to £460,000 last financial year, as he stepped down
It brought his total remuneration package to £455,000 to £460,000.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, pictured in the front row on the right, received a £20,000 to £25,000 performance-related bonus plus a £50,000 ‘exit payment’, Home Office accounts revealed
Sir Matthew, now 57, announced in February to staff he was leaving the Home Office ‘for pastures new’.
The publication of the Home Office civil servants’ pay came as migrants were seen sprinting across a beach at Gravelines, northern France, this morning to board a dinghy bound for Britain
The group of migrants included a men who held a child aloft on his shoulders
One migrant was pictured jumping off an overloaded dinghy – for unknown reasons – as it set off from Gravelines beach
He was knighted in the 2023 New Year’s Honours List for ‘services to British diplomacy, development and domestic policy’.
At the time, some senior political figures expressed surprise at the gong.
The scenes of migrants sprinting through the surf were reminscent of the opening sequence of the Oscar-winning 1981 movie Chariots of Fire
In all, senior Home Office civil servants received bonuses totalling between £80,000 and £120,000 last year.
Director General of the Border Force Phil Douglas received a total package of £275,000 to £280,000, the report showed.
He, too, was paid a £10,000 to £15,000 bonus on top of his £145,000 to £150,000 salary, plus pension contributions.
Dan Hobbs, the Director General of Migration and Borders, received a bonus of up to £5,000 on top of his £130,000 to £135,000 salary, bringing his total package to £265,000 to £270,000, including £128,000 in pension benefits.
Border Security Commander Martin Hewitt, a former chief constable, is on £200,000 to £205,000 a year, the report confirmed.
Second permanent secretary Simon Ridley was paid £170,000 to £175,000, plus £82,000 in pension benefits.
The accounts, published today set out how civil servant’s bonuses are performance-related.
‘Bonuses are based on performance levels attained and are made as part of the appraisal process,’ it said.
In November 2023 MPs were left exasperated at the lack of detail Sir Matthew was able to provide about the cost of the Rwanda asylum scheme, which was then in development.
Following a series of exchanges where Sir Matthew and his second-in-command Simon Ridley were unable to answer questions, committee chairman Dame Diana Johnson asked: ‘Do we have any figures about anything?’
Dame Diana is now a Home Office minister, and overlapped at the department with Sir Matthew from last July’s election until his departure.
The figures came as migrants were seen sprinting across a French beach to reach a dinghy.
In scenes reminiscent of the opening sequence of Oscar-winning 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, the migrants ran through surf on the beach at Gravelines, near Calais, this morning.
Several hundred migrants are thought to have reached Britain today.
Since Labour came to power 45,746 have arrived, not including today’s unconfirmed number.
