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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the cost of theft and fraud to (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1997. [191426] Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department and its agencies have recorded losses, including thefts, to the value of £429,667 in financial years 1997-2004 to date. The Department takes the protection of its information technology systems and assets very seriously and the its security policy and procedures are kept under constant review. Table 1 shows a breakdown of individual years for the Department and the totals for the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MRHA) and the National Health Service Purchasing and Supply Agency. Table 1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Financial Year Total losses (£) 1997-98 48,485.00 1998-99 55,148.00 1999-2000 45,094.00 2000-01 56,832.00 2001-02 70,500.00 2002-03 66,004.00 2003-04 56,917.00 2004-05 to date 25,857.00 PASA--2002-03 2,177.00 PASA--2003-04 2,453.00 MHRA--2003-04 200.00 Total losses 429,667.00 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Table 2 shows figures for fraud, provided by the NHS counter fraud and security management service. Table 2 £ ____________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Department Agencies Non- departmental public Total bodies 1997-98 61,415 1,461 10,458 73,334 1998-99 66,897 0 6,903 73,800 1999-2000 48,148 3,493 2,739 54,380 2000-01 56,831 0 6,582 63,413 2001-02 34,862 1,706 12,131 48,699 2002-03 73,892 0 0 73,892 2003-04 29,082 1168,307 22,259 219,648 ____________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 From MHRA--this includes a stolen cheque for £162,000, which should be reimbursed by the bank. The case is in the hands of their lawyers. This was included in the 2003-04 Her Majesty's Treasury fraud return.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1992W;426 c1998W; 191426

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Costs Executive agencies Fraud Government departments Non-departmental public bodies Theft Department of Health

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk