UNITED KINGDOM
London Evening Standard
MARTIN BENTHAM
Published: 13 July 2015
The judge leading the Government’s inquiry into historical child sex abuse will receive a pay package worth up to £500,000 a year.
New Zealander Justice Lowell Goddard, who has vowed to name politicians and other high-profile figures involved in paedophile activity, will be paid an annual salary of £360,000.
That means she is due to be paid £1.8 million by the end of the five-year inquiry. The total could rise if the inquiry overruns.
Justice Goddard will also be given a living allowance of £110,000 a year, £12,000 a year to cover utility bills, and other entitlements including four return flights a year to New Zealand for her and her husband.
A further two economy-class return flights a year will be provided by taxpayers for other family members.
Her package also includes the use of a chauffeur-driven car for official business. The size of the judge’s pay deal will prompt renewed concern about the scale and cost of the inquiry.
It is budgeted to cost taxpayers £17.9 million in its first year alone and is certain to cost tens of millions of pounds before it is completed.
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