Sir Fred may quit UK over pension

Sir Fred Goodwin, the controversial former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, is considering leaving Britain to escape the fallout over his £700,000-a-year pension.

The Times reports that friends have advised Sir Fred to go abroad for several months and that he is considering his options.

The paper adds that Sir Fred is concerned about his children and claims that they were taken out of school last year over concerns about their safety as they were getting a "pretty rough time".

It has also emerged that it will be hard to recoup any of Sir Fred's pension because the dealk was signed off by Sir Tom McKillop, the bank's former chairman, and Bob Scott, the bank's top independent director.

A legal review of the situation has begun over the pay-offs to executives at banks RBS and HBOS. UK Financial Institutions, the body set up to manage government-owned stakes in part-nationalised banks, has asked the law firm Slaughter and May to investigate whether the pair could be sued for agreeing to Sir Fred's deal in October last year.