THE pay packets of Oxfordshire’s top-earning public sector workers have been put under the spotlight by an Oxford Mail investigation.

More than 224 people working at Oxford University are paid more than £100,000-a-year, with 75 top earners getting more than Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron’s £140,000 salary.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism researched salary information from about 2,400 organisations nationwide.

It has also emerged that at least 130 Oxfordshire GPs are paid more than £100,000, with 23 GPs picking up more than £150,000 and five more than £200,000.

The top earners in the county include Oxford Brookes University vice-chancellor Prof Janet Beer on £212,000 and Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Sara Thornton on £162,756.

Oxford University paid former vice-chancellor Dr John Hood £287,000 last year. However, the salary of his successor, Prof Andrew Hamilton, will not be released until the university publishes its financial statement for 2009-10 in January next year.

University spokesman Ruth Collier said details of salaries were always published in end-of-year accounts.

She said: “According to every national league table in 2009, Oxford was the number one university in the country. It’s the biggest research provider in the UK and is probably the most complex institutionally.”

Many of the highest-paid people in the public sector in Oxfordshire are in local government, with county council chief executive Joanna Simons topping the table on £189,158. County Hall also pays seven other officers more than £100,000 a year.

A County Hall spokesman said: “Local government manages huge budgets and chief executives carry massive responsibility in delivering vital public services such as social care, fire and rescue, education, highways and transport.

“There’s nothing unique about the salary paid to Oxfordshire County Council’s chief executive. It’s similar or lower to that of chief executives at similar local authorities.

“It’s also worth noting that salaries of local authority chief executives are generally lower than those of university vice-chancellors, many civil servants, BBC executives and chief executives of many other public bodies.”

Three boards members of Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust also earned more than Mr Cameron, with the recently departed interim chief executive earning about £160,000. But they are not the top earners in local hospitals, with a number of doctors earning more, although not all their income comes from the trust.

Mark Ladbrooke, of trade union Unison’s Oxfordshire health branch, said “With wages for the lower-paid being held down, there’s now a real question whether the priorities are right in the allocation of funding.”

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The figures for Oxfordshire are quite staggering. It’s becoming increasingly clear that remuneration for senior staff has got out of hand and there needs to be restraint in order to get the country through a fiscal crisis without imposing an even greater burden on hard-working taxpayers.”

Shortly after becoming Prime Minister, Mr Cameron vowed to curb “crazy” bonuses in the public sector, with a commission limiting pay for the heads of public bodies to no more than 20 times that of the lowest-paid.

Pay for private sector executives in Oxfordshire is also riding high. Terry Sweeney, chief executive of schools computer software company RM, based at Milton Park. was paid £305,000 according to its 2009 accounts.

And at technology firm Oxford Instruments, based at Tubney Woods, near Abingdon, chief executive Jonathan Flint received a total of £594,000 according to accounts just released. He was paid £290,000 in salary, £14,000 in benefits, plus a £290,000 performance-related bonus.