Figures released by NHS England have revealed the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay trust raked in a total of £1.1million in parking charges.

With £325,800 of this coming from parking charges and fines aimed at staff working across all of their facilities.

Some people are questioning whether parking charges for staff should be abolished completely in England, following suit behind Scotland and Wales who have abolished a variety of charges in their car parks.

Unite, a union which represents around 100,000 health workers, has slammed the "scandalous" figures, which it said amounted to a "tax on hard-pressed" employees.

Sarah Carpenter, national officer for health at Unite, said: "It is a scandal that NHS trusts in England have pocketed nearly £70m from staff car parking charges."

Others say that the charges are put back into the hospitals and help with the upkeep of parking facilities.

A spokeswoman for NHS Improvement said: "As we develop the long-term plan for the NHS, it is right that trusts continue to develop their commercial income opportunities. This is so that they can maintain their services and ensure they can provide patients with high quality care, both now and in future."

Patients Association chief executive Rachel Power said: "The top priority for any new NHS funding should be patient care. At a time when patients are receiving undignified and unsafe care on hospital corridors, car parking charges are not the top priority – undesirable though they may be."

She said how they were a way for hospitals to generate revenue at a time when they are under "immense" financial pressure.

The Department of Health and Social Care has issued guidelines to NHS organisations on how they can make car parking policies fair, suggesting that concessions be given to people who are gravely ill or disabled, as well as putting this offer towards their families.

These guidelines also offer a similar scheme to staff who work shift patterns, which would allow free or discounting parking to staff who are unable to use public transport to and from work.

The NHS has said in the past that all money produced by car parking charges, almost £157million a year, was put back into the upkeep of car parks, with excess money being put back into the NHS itself.

Ultimately, individual NHS trusts choose their parking charges.