A study into salaries in the public sector has revealed the top earners in Hertfordshire.

The BBC's Panorama television programme, in collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, carried out an extensive review of top public sector pay in the UK.

A database of public sector workers who were paid £100,000 or more in the financial year 2009/10 or 2008/09 including base salary, plus any bonuses, extra pay or benefits in kind was compiled.

Amongst these big earners were the former managing director of Watford Borough Council, Alastair Robertson, who retired last summer.

The council said Mr Robertson's basic wage was £135,105, lower than the £148,436 stated in the report, and that extra duties such as acting as returning officer in elections had skewed the results.

In some cases, the six figure incomes earned by 38,045 state employees were higher even than prime minister David Cameron who takes home £142,500.

Vice chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, Professor Tim Wilson, earned £235,500 in the 2009/10 year, making him the 35th most well paid in the database.

Ann Bruno, from the University of Hertfordshire, said the vice chancellor had no say in the amount he was paid, as it was decided by a committee, and the chairman’s report on his performance.

She added: “At the University of Hertfordshire, we compare the remuneration of our senior staff against surveys of salaries of senior staff from across the sector.

“The vice chancellor’s salary falls just below the quoted average earned by university heads.”

Freedom of Information requests were sent by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to around 2,400 public sector organisations, annual reports and other official documents in the public domain were also consulted.

The areas where the database focuses are central government, local government, police, NHS, the armed forces, emergency services, universities, the judiciary and quangos.

Excluded were larger public corporations such as Network Rail, Royal Mail, Channel 4, the Financial Services Authority and the publicly owned banks.