Written question asked by David Amess (Conservative) on Tuesday, 6 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 8 December 2005. It was answered by Jane Kennedy (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 December 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Health Act 1999

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people aged (a) 18 to 24, (b) 25 to 30, (c) 31 to 40 and (d) over 40 years have been prosecuted under the Health Act 1999 for wrongful claims for free prescriptions in (i) Southend, (ii) Essex, (iii) Hertfordshire and (iv) England in each year since 2000.

Answer: Since August 2001, a penalty charge system has been in place in respect of those falsely claiming exemption to national health service pharmaceutical charges. Since its introduction, more than 160,000 penalty notices have been issued. The total amount recovered to date is over £2,950,000. These figures are national and are not broken down into the age categories and regions as requested. Penalties are sanctioned through the civil courts as criminal prosecution of offenders would not be a cost-effective way of dealing with such high volume but low-value frauds.The introduction of the penalty charge system has enabled the money recovered to be re-invested in providing better patient care within the NHS.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 36177; 440 c2703W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Fraud Fees and charges Exemptions Essex NHS Prosecutions Prescriptions Southend on Sea Hertfordshire
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk