LONDON  –  DJ Scott Mills was the highest-paid presenter at the BBC before he was sacked earlier this year, according to the corporation’s annual report. The 53-year-old was paid around £745,000 before his exit in March, when it emerged he had been accused of historical sexual offences. Mills co-operated with a police investigation and was not charged. Other top earners at the BBC included Greg James, Stephen Nolan, Laura Kuenssberg, Vernon Kay and Alan Shearer, but Gary Lineker dropped significantly after leaving two months into the financial year. The latest annual report also shows the number of TV licences in force went down by 539,000 last year. In total, the number of TV licences sold has dropped by two million in the past five years – from 25.3 million in 2020-21 to 23.3 million last year.

The annual salaries list is far from a complete picture of what top talent at the BBC earn, as the corporation only publishes the names of stars it pays directly. A large number of household names, such as Claudia Winkleman, Michael McIntyre and Graham Norton, are missing from the list because they are paid via production companies.

Mills was sacked by the BBC just a few days before the end of the financial year, meaning the £745,000 listed in the report represents almost his full annual BBC earnings.

That includes his tenure hosting the Radio 2 breakfast show as well as other BBC work, including several editions of Scott & Rylan’s Pop: Top 10 podcast.

Sara Cox recently took over as host of Radio 2’s breakfast show, with the BBC yet to announce who will permanently replace her in the teatime slot.

In March, it emerged that Mills had been accused of serious sexual offences involving a teenager under 16 in the late 1990s.

A police investigation was launched in 2016, which Mills said he “fully co-operated” with, before it was closed in 2019 after prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.