YJB paying fat-cat IT salaries

Last month, it was revealed that the organisation was spending £336,000 a year to employ chief information officer Mike Mackay to oversee its Wiring Up Youth Justice programme.

Fresh details obtained under the Freedom of Information Act now show that 11 other consultants working on the programme are earning six-figure salaries. Among those on bumper pay packets are project management office manager Andy Weller and delivery model strategist Sue Winter.

The Wiring Up Youth Justice programme is designed to improve the transfer of sensitive data between different parts of the youth justice system and enable staff to update records on young offenders quickly and securely.

The YJB's latest annual accounts show that it spent almost £7.5m on temporary staff working on the IT programme in 2008/09.

Frances Crook, director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said she was shocked by the amount the government body was spending on IT consultants. "The YJB already spends two-thirds of its budget on children's prisons, and spends 10 times more on custody than on crime prevention," she said. "The money would be better spent keeping children out of prison in the first place."

Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, who has been campaigning against government departments employing highly paid consultants, added: "It is doubtless that the programme is worthwhile, but questions must be asked about whether it is being managed well."

But a YJB spokesman defended its expenditure. "The YJB follows government guidelines when it recruits contractors and pays market rates," he said. "The three-year Wiring Up Youth Justice programme receives its funding on a yearly basis and so is unable to offer permanent positions. The programme has recorded savings of £8m of public money thanks to its work on increasing effectiveness and efficiency in the youth justice system."