SIX directors at Ordnance Survey shared up to £130,000 in bonuses last year, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The bonus payments have been questioned by a Hampshire MP, after awards to the top executives at the Southampton -based publicly- owned agency jumped by between 17 and 30 per cent last year.

As public sector workers across the county face pay freezes and wage cuts, three senior Ordnance Survey staff took home at least £20,000 each in “performance- related pay” on top of their salaries, which are all signed off by the Prime Minister.

The highest-paid director at the map-makers, based at Adanac Park on the western outskirts of Southampton, earned a total of £237,500 last year, its annual accounts have revealed.

Part of the directors’ pay is dependent on performance, with individuals able to earn between five per cent and a quarter of their salary in additional bonuses. As with all senior civil servants, the pay deals are set by the Prime Minister after independent advice from a review panel.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham said he believes the bonus system needs to be examined.

The Labour MP said: “The directors of Ordnance Survey are expected to run it like a business and make a profit for the taxpayer, so it’s not surprising there’s some bonus pay. But are these bonuses actually justified by real performance?

“And at a time when everybody else is tightening their belts there’s a real question as to whether bonuses should be paid in public sector organisations even if people have done a good job.

I don’t think anybody should ever get a bonus for just doing their job. Bonuses should only be paid if people have obviously done something well over and above what they would normally be expected to do.”

The Review Body on Senior Salaries says pay awards should allow the public sector to recruit and keep “suitably able and qualified people”, but also consider governmental spending limits and inflation targets.

It must also take account of “the evidence it receives about wider economic considerations and the affordability of its recommendations”.

Between £100,000 and £130,000 was paid out as performance- related pay to six Ordnance Survey directors during the last financial year, up from between £85,000 and £110,000 given out 12 months earlier.

In 2011/12 the highest payment went to sales and market development director James Brayshaw, who takes home a basic salary of up to £130,000.

He received a bonus on top of that of between £25,000 and £30,000.

Head of products Peter ter Haar and Neil Ackroyd, in charge of data collection and management, were given additional payments of at least £20,000.

Chief executive Vanessa Lawrence was handed between £15,000 and £20,000, as was information systems boss Bob Goodrich.

The map-makers’ highest paid individual, director of finance and corporate services Paul Hemsley, took home a total of £237,500 last year, which included a bonus of up to £10,000.

Meanwhile, the average pay for all Ordnance Survey workers was £30,493, which was unchanged from a year earlier. Prospect, which represents over half of the 1,100 staff at the mapping agency’s new £40m headquarters in Nursling , was unavailable for comment.