§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the estimated cost of prescription fraud in Northern Ireland was in each of the last three years. [133344]
§ Angela SmithThe best estimate for the cost of prescription fraud in 2000–01 was £9.5 million, in 2001–02 it was £8.6 million and in 2002–03 it was £8.3 million.
It should be noted that the figures include the situations where a patient has deliberately set out to defraud the system and cases where a patient has misclaimed exemption from prescription charges in error.
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