The sacking of a senior Whitehall official over the farm payments fiasco has cost the taxpayer more than £250,000 so far, it was revealed last night.

Former Rural Payments Agency chief executive Johnston McNeill told MPs he had been awarded more than £60,000 in compensation by the Civil Service Appeals Board.

That was on top of £81,000 he was paid for the eight months he spent on full pay after being suspended, half a year's salary of £56,000 when he was dismissed, a £42,000 lump sum and a £12,800-a-year pension.

Mr McNeill said he was now considering whether to take the matter further after the Civil Service Appeals Board - whose compensation awards are capped - ruled that he had been unfairly dismissed.

He was suspended in March last year as a backlog at the Rural Payments Agency left thousands of farmers waiting for payments they were due. "I've had no disciplinary hearing, I've had no correspondence about what exactly it is I have done wrong, I've had no opportunity to appeal," he told the Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Mr McNeill added: "I'm now considering my right to take it further on other issues which is a matter I'm discussing with my lawyer."