The BBC will today take the unprecedented step of publishing the exact salary details and expenses of its 100 highest-paid employees — each one of whom earns over £150,000.

The top earners, who take home an estimated £20 million a year, will also have every one of their expenses claims published on the corporation’s website.

Every taxi journey, restaurant bill and five star hotel stay will be documented as the BBC publishes 3,000 individual claims made as part of an expense bill estimated to be at least £500,000 a year. Claims released today will cover the period between April and June.

A special web page will be devoted to the pay and claims made by Mark Thompson, the Director-General, and each of the other 99 top earners, whose ranks also include Jay Hunt, the controller of BBC One, and Alan Yentob, the corporation’s creative director.

The BBC, which anticipates that a hostile Conservative Party will sweep to power in the general election next year, will continue to publish the figures, every three months, in a bid to show that it is the most transparant public body in the UK.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has campaigned against this year’s increase in the compulsory licence fee, which costs £142.50 and is paid by 25 million households. The party has promised to cut the licence fee when it gets into power, and ensure that nobody at the BBC is paid more than the £192,250 received by the Prime Minister.

The BBC has already released some expenses claims covering the past five years, which painted a picture of a lavish, jet-set lifestyle that included stays at some of the world’s most exclusive hotels and shopping trips to luxury boutiques to buy generous gifts for the broadcaster’s on-screen talent.

It was shown that the top 40 staff had claimed nearly £800,000 over the past five years, including a £1,277 private jet trip for its Director-General and a £99.99 bottle of vintage champagne given to Bruce Forsyth on his 80th birthday.

However, today’s disclosures will be more far reaching, because they cover more staff, and include previously secret claims made via the corporation’s central booking system. Those extra claims are expected to push the annual total far beyond what has already been revealed.

The BBC has hinted previously at the salaries of its top 50 executives by publishing them in bands of £30,000, but today’s release will instead give exact figures for the 100 best-paid staff, as well as their expense claims for the April to June quarter of this year. It is expected to show that around 60 employees earn more than the Prime Minister’s salary of £192,250.

The corporation has already let it be known that it is cutting new contracts for performers by 20 per cent, and Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, announced two weeks ago that nearly one in five of its senior managers, some 115 staff, will be dispensed with by 2013 and new senior staff paid far less than they could expect in the commercial sector.

A BBC source said: “The public have told us they want simplicity, openness and access and we believe we’ve gone a lot further than other public bodies in the way we’ve done this.”

The BBC continues to refuse, however, to publish details of what it pays its on-screen talent, claiming that it will unfairly disadvantage it and lead to a migration of top performers to its commercial rivals. The corporation has promised to publish the total spend on talent, but has not yet set a date.

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