Health officials and ministers were not trying to “cover-up” information about poor standards of care at Stafford Hospital, a top civil servant has said.

Sir Hugh Taylor, permanent secretary at the Department of Health between 2006 and 2010, was giving evidence yesterday to the public inquiry into failings at the hospital.

A report by the Healthcare Commission published in March 2009 found appalling and damning levels of care at the hospital with failings at almost every level.

A figure on estimated deaths was removed from its publication but information later leaked showed between 400 and 1,200 people may have died as a result of poor care.

The exact number is unlikely to ever be known.

Sir Hugh told the inquiry that at a meeting, the former chairman of the Healthcare Commission, Sir Ian Kennedy, had wanted time to consider the consequences of the publication of the mortality figures.

“I think Sir Ian Kennedy reserved his position in the sense that he wanted to go away and think about it so a final decision was not taken until later.

“Alan Johnson, who was then the health secretary, was very clear that if we were going to start using figures they had to be figures that would be understood by people in a straightforward way.

“This was not about trying to undermine the Healthcare Commission or apply inappropriate political pressure,” he added.

Sir Hugh also added in his witness statement that the Department of Health was not attempting to “cover up” information and knew the report was going to “attract heavy scrutiny.”