The amount of bonuses paid out across the whole of the British economy from April 2010 to March 2011 was unchanged from the previous year at 35 billion pounds ($56 billion), the UK's Office for National Statistics said. The statistics body added on Tuesday that the amount of bonuses paid out in the financial and insurance sectors stood at 14 billion pounds, again unchanged from the previous year.
Public anger against bonuses paid out to Britain's powerful financial industry has remained high in the wake of the credit crisis, which saw taxpayers' money used to bail out and rescue several leading British banks.
The top UK banks S- Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and HSBC - struck a deal with the government this year called "Project Merlin", in which they pledged to moderate their pay packages and in return lend more money to small businesses to boost Britain's flagging economy. However, in May the Bank of England said those banks had fallen short of those lending targets in the first quarter.