§ Mrs. Iris RobinsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average annual cost of prescription fraud has been in the last five years. [148834]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe National Health Service Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (NHS CFSMS) has an ongoing programme of highly accurate risk measurement exercises—accurate to plus or minus one per cent.—designed to reveal levels of losses and, through repeated exercises, reduction in such losses, where they take place.
The latest available data on pharmaceutical patient fraud is shown in the table.
1361W
£ million Year data selected Fraud losses 1998–99 117 1999–2000 69 Point of dispensing checks were introduced in all community pharmacies on 1 April 1999 to help deter this type of fraud. The check requires pharmacists to ask patients who are claiming free prescriptions to produce evidence to support their claim to exemption from prescription charges. Later data will be produced shortly.