Child Sex Abuse Inquiry: Lowell Goddard's ?482,000-a-year Package

By David Barrett
The Telegraph
July 13, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/child-protection/11736275/Child-sex-abuse-inquiry-Lowell-Goddards-482000-a-year-package.html

Justice Lowell Goddard

Justice Lowell Goddard, the senior New Zealand judge appointed to head the Government’s child sex abuse inquiry, will be paid ?360,000 a year with a further ?122,000 in allowances, it has been disclosed.

The Home Office will also pay for four business class return flights for her and her husband a year between New Zealand and Britain, plus two return economy flights a year for unspecified “immediate family” members.

The unexpected size of Justice Goddard’s remuneration package means she is expected to received about ?2.5 million in pay and allowances over the course of the inquiry, which she said last week is due to run until late 2020.

Justice Goddard’s salary alone is two and a half times that of David Cameron, the Prime Minister, who earns ?142,500.

It is also substantially more than the highest-paid judge in England and Wales, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, who receives ?244,665.

She is understood to have earned about ?180,000-a-year in her previous job in New Zealand.

Sir John Chilcot, who headed the yet-to-be-published report into the Iraq war, was paid a day rate of ?790 – equating to ?205,400 a year – while Sir Brian Leveson who chaired the inquiry into Press standards and ethics took his normal ?197,000 judge’s annual salary.

Official figures indicate Justice Goddard will be the highest paid public servant in Britain in terms of her basic salary, above the previous highest-paid, Ian Nolan, head of funds investment at the Government’s Green Investment Bank, on ?335,000.

Outside that bank the highest-earning public sector worker is the chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority, Andrew Haines, on ?305,000.

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Justice Goddard’s package also includes ?110,000 a year in rental allowance and ?1,000 a month to pay for utilities, plus a car and driver for official business.

She will be entitled to 30 days’ holiday a year, but will not receive pension entitlements in the job.

The terms of Justice Goddard’s appointment, released following last week’s official opening of the inquiry, show she is contracted to December 2018 with extensions allowed by mutual agreement with the Home Office.

She is allowed to resign with three months’ notice.

Four panel members of the inquiry will be paid ?565 a day – meaning they could earn ?146,900 a year if they work five days a week.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons' home affairs select committee, welcomed Justice Goddard's "openness and transparency" in publishing her pay deal but noted committee members first asked for the information in February.