Taxpayers pumped in more than £250,000 into the pension fund of the former Stafford Hospital chief executive in the year before he resigned.

Figures in the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust annual report show Martin Yeates saw his pension increase by £254,000 between March 2008 and March this year.

This was during a three-year period in which a Healthcare Commission report estimated as many as 400 people died as a result of poor care. It takes into account a big increase in his salary after the trust achieved foundation status.

Mike Gill, trust deputy chief executive, said Mr Yeates had received no payout other than what he was contractually entitled to. Mr Yeates, of Church Eaton, resigned from the trust earlier this year after being suspended for two months following the publication of the damning Healthcare Commission report in March.

In the days before the report was released Mr Yeates “stepped aside” and avoided having to answer questions about his leadership of the trust.