A Birmingham hospital trust rakes in more cash for parking charges than any other hospital in England and Wales.

The Heart of England NHS Trust , which runs Good Hope , Solihull and Heartlands hospitals pocketed £4 million in 2013-14 from parking charges at its three hospital sites.

The figure placed it top of the league for money received from parking charges .

The news comes after a TV programme revealed that more than hospital trusts are giving private companies a slice of the cash raised from parking fines, breaching government guidelines.

The controversial arrangements see companies given an incentive to dish out penalty notices to hospital visitors who breach parking rules.

But The Heart of England Trust said it does not profit share with private company G4S, which manages its car parks, and instead pays them a maintenance fee.

The Trust pays G4S around £1.3 million a year to manage and provide security for its three car parks.

The Trust explained it keeps all revenues from tickets and fines, and reinvests them into the three hospital sites.

Chris Davies, head of facilities, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are committed to providing safe and cost effective parking facilities to all those who come to our sites.

“We are a large trust covering three sites and the revenue from car parking charges reflects the size of the Trust.

“The Trust does not take any form of profit from car parking charges as the funds are used to fund capital charges, utility costs, security and car parking management service, as well as the upkeep, maintenance and investment in the car parks which includes CCTV systems, grounds, and road safety.”

Channel 4’s Dispatches programme found that despite Jeremy Hunt pledging to crack down on hospital parking charges, 55 of 156 hospital Trusts in England and Wales are paying some or all of their revenues to private companies.

Freedom of Information requests issued by Dispatches also found that four trusts had “ignored the guidance” issued by Mr Hunt, and organised new contracts since August to provide money from parking tickets to their private contractors.

The Department of Health said it was “disappointed to hear that some Trusts are not following the hospital parking guidelines”.

It said that “contractors should receive income to cover the normal costs of providing parking services”, but stressed that charges “must be applied reasonably”.