§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of fraudulent exemption claims for prescriptions were submitted by pharmacists in(a) 1998, (b) 1999, (c) 2000 and (d) 2001. [61974]
§ Mr. LammyThe responsibility for detecting fraudulent claims for prescriptions submitted by pharmacists has lain with the Prescription Pricing Authority for each of the years referred to.
The number of cases where they have detected potential fraud is detailed in the table:
Number of referrals 1998 3 1999 2 2000 2 2001 7 In March 2002 it was decided, in order to put in place more effective arrangements, that the national health service counter fraud service should take over this area of work. This is likely to take place late in 2002.
The table represents the number of investigations carried out, where the pharmacist has received the prescription charge from the patient and then submitted 570W the prescription for payment as exempt. The majority of these referrals were identified during samples for targeted checks on patient claims to exemptions, and may not be representative of all patient exemption claims as a whole.