§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the steps his Department takes to prevent fraud when patients do not take all items on a multi-itemed general practitioner-written prescription;
(2) what information he has on the incidence of prescription-based fraud in the past five years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyChecking procedures undertaken by the Department to prevent prescription fraud are not made public. Cases of suspected prescription-based fraud are referred by the Prescription Pricing Authority to the Family Health Services Authority for investigation. No centrally held information is available on the number of established cases of fraud.