The Chancellor told BBC radio 4's The World at One: "Certainly I criticise some of the share options schemes, I criticise some asp?conf of the pay which book isn't based on performance." But he said: "One day this country will decide id=3 that good businessmen are entitled to be paid at least as much as good footballers asp?conf [up to £10,000 a week for a top id=3 premiership player]."Personally I'm all in favour book of good footballers being paid quite a lot, but a guy who runs his business quite successfully and is as good at running a business as a book book det footballer is at scor- ing goals, deserves to be paid."What I object to is these people in less competitive industries who've got themselves rather advantageous schemes which we've made quite clear we will act upon."John Major has signalled that the Government would legislate if that is id=3 the recommendation of the CBI committee on top people's pay headed book book det by the Marks & Spencer chief Sir Richard asp?conf id=3 Greenbury.The Chancellor said Labour was guilty of the politics of envy and would simply "throw the baby out with the bathwater".He went on: "The starting point has got to be: what is a fair reward, what actually rewards good performance because good performance in business means prosperity and book asp?conf id=3 it means jobs for thousands of people ..."You can't have a successful economy, a rich economy, without having some rich and successful people who've helped us create det all that."The Chancellor said Labour had sought "a few easy rounds of applause" by claiming some asp?conf businessmen were det paid too much.Iain McCartney, shadow Employment Minister, said the privatised utilities had cut 125,910 jobs and another 82,380 were in the pipeline. "The bosses of privatised utilities have been using mass redundancies to create a short-term boost for their balance sheet and a lottery jackpot boost for their bonuses."t Michael Bett CBE, whose appointment as the new First Civil Service Commissioner was announced by Downing Street yesterday, will get an annual salary of £57,000 for a three-day week when he takes up the post on 3 April. The salary reflects the Civil Service permanent secretary grade, although Mr Bett, 60, is also a non-executive director of BT and chairman of Cellnet.Following January's White Paper Taking Forward Continuity and Change, he and the book other commissioners will be responsible for approving all appointments from outside the service to senior posts within.. Peter Lilley, the Secretary of State for Social Security, has been asked to consider whether two computer companies bidding for a £1.8bn DSS contract should be det allowed to as they employ former civil servants from his department's IT division. Labour MP, Stephen book Byers, wrote last night to Mr Lilley after it was confirmed two officials from the DSS's computer agency had joined ICL and Siemens-Nixdorf in the past five years. "I would have thought Mr Lilley would want to ensure there was no possibility of those book companies ... benefiting from potential misuse of inside information," he said.

The contract, the largest ever in the public sector, will be awarded in May.The agency employs 4,000 people. In the last five years, seven officials have been given permission to join IT companies in the private sector. A spokesman insisted last night that Mr Byers had no cause for concern. "There is absolutely no conflict of interest," he said.Senior civil servants are required to seek permission before joining private sector companies with whom they have previously had contact. There is no suggestion that in these cases the rules were not observed.ICL and Siemens-Nixdorf both deny any conflict of interest. An ICL spokesman said: "We can categorically state that nobody from the DSS is working on our bid.".

Whitehall's mandarin in charge of open government said yesterday that the Government was deliberately trying to keep down the number of requests from the public for official information because of the difficulties of coping with a large number of questions. An open government code came into force in April last year, giving individuals and organisations the right to ask for any information from any department, but far fewer people have used the right than in other countries, probably because it is largely unknown and has not yet been advertised. Andrew Whetnall, head of the machinery of government division of the Cabinet Office, told MPs yesterday: "I'm not surprised the Government has stopped short of urging people to use their rights."Mr Whetnall told the Commons Select Committee for the Ombudsman, which polices the code, that in all countries which had freedom of information laws they were only used by "a fraction of 1 per cent" of the population. "If they were taken up by a much larger number, departments would get into serious difficulties," he said.The Government spent only £51,000 across every department publicising the code, through leaflets distributed to law advice centres, local departmental offices and Citizens Advice Bureaux.Mr Whetnall said media advertising had been considered, but it had been found that no other country had advertised, so the Government decided not to do so either.There had been no survey to try to discover levels of awareness of the code. "I think public awareness of the code is is quite high in those circles likely to have an interest in access," he told the committee.He said there had been less press and television coverage of the code in Britain because it was not backed by an Act of Parliament.Asked if he thought it had been a mistake not to pass a freedom of information law in Britain, he said: "It's a defensible case that this is a viable way to proceed without going down a path which can lead to an excessively legalistic approach."He blamed media reports focusing on high charges made by some departments for information for deterring applicants."It is early days," he said. "I hope use will build up, especially of the appeal rights."People who are refused information have the right to an internal review of the decision, then can ask an MP to pass it to the Ombudsman to examine the decision.James Pawsey, the Conservative chairman of the committee, told him people needed to be told routinely about their rights to appeal..