The pay of BBC bosses has leapt by 17 per cent while they have presided over a string of phone-in scandals and a row involving faked footage of the Queen.

Mark Thompson, the Director-General, and nine other BBC bosses earned £4.96 million in 2007-08, up from £4.25 million the previous year. Most BBC employees took home 4 per cent increases over the same period.

The increase came even though Mr Thompson refused to take up his bonus, which would have amounted to around £60,000, close to the maximum possible. Two other directors – Jana Bennett, director of vision, and Jenny Abramsky, the outgoing director of radio – saw bonuses reduced by a few thousand pounds to reflect the phone-in scandals.

Mr Thompson, who earned £816,000, up from £788,000, said that it "didn't feel right" to take a bonus because "of the scale and change across the BBC" – code for the level of ongoing job cuts. He said he had made that decision without "other considerations" entering my head, referring to the phone-in difficulties.

It was decided that bonuses should be cut by up to 40 per cent in areas where there had been editorial lapses with phone lines or the Queen documentary, he added. It was felt that there should be a "significant discount to the bonus to reflect what had happened".

Nonetheless Ms Bennett's pay rose from £433,000 to £536,000, and the salary of Mark Byford, deputy Director general, rose from £437,000 to £513,000.

He defended the executive pay rises of up to £107,000 each, saying that across the board they were less than other broadcasters received outside the BBC, and were justified because where executives had substantially increased their responsibilties.

"BBC executive benefits are set at a much lower level than most of our equivalents," he said. "When you actually get out into the external world, some potential candidates almost roll on the floor laughing when you talk about potential levels of pay."

Mr Thompson said that audience feedback showed that trust in the BBC had returned to previous levels, despite a dip following the phone-in scandals.

Last year, the BBC suspended all its phone-in competitions after faked phone-ins were revealed in shows including Comic Relief and Children In Need. The BBC was also fined £50,000 for a faked competition winner on Blue Peter, and the show was forced to apologise after the results of a poll to name the show’s cat were changed by staff.

"We... faced an episode in which the trust of our audience was seriously tested," Mr Thompson admitted.

"The determined response of all the BBC to the problem, and subsequently the rigorous new safeguards that we put in place have resulted in levels of trust returning to normal."

He said he recommended that his colleagues received bonuses, adding: "It was certainly a year when we encountered some problems but it was also a year of considerable achievement."

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