E&Y's UK managing partner Scott Halliday has defended the Big Four firm's decision to publish a transparency report yesterday that did not include the earnings of the firm's senior personnel. Halliday said the fact the 25-page transparency report did not disclose either his own pay packet nor that of Europe managing partner Mark Otty nor the UK firm's average profit-per-partner figure was 'not a lead story'. 'The lead story is how we're serving our clients,' he said, adding that the firm was following the example of its multinational clients by choosing not to report on a country-country basis. He did, however, reveal that despite achieving growth of 7.9% in the year ended 3 July 2009, partners would be experiencing a drop in their average earnings that was 'consistent with other firms' as the firm was taking a 'long-term' view and continuing to invest despite the recession. But he hinted that staff could look forward to a pay freeze at the firm being lifted when the upturn comes as we are 'very focused on offering competitive salaries to all our people'. Less than 1% of staff members have been made redundant from the UK firm during the year. Halliday also dismissed suggestions that E&Y's UK revenue growth - which far eclipsed rival Big Four firms PricewaterhouseCoopers (0.5% growth ) and Deloitte (2% fall in revenues) - was related to the fact that the firm bills for some of its contracts in US dollars. 'I don't think the currency impact has much of an impact on those figures. Most of it is billed in pounds,' he said. He also said that although some of the revenues related to internal cross-charging, this had been 'standard operating procedure for years'. Halliday attributed the growth to the firm's structure after the EMEIA region was formed in July 2008, bringing together 87 practices in Europe, Africa and Asia. The structure allowed partners and teams to work collaboratively and cross-border, he said. There were also the benefits of streamlining the internal organisation to take cost out of the system instead of 'trying to run 87 partnerships with all the infrastructure and back office' behind them.