Written question asked by Patsy Calton (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 23 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 April 2004. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Monday, 19 April 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his Answer of 17th March, Official Report, column 393W, on prescriptions, if he will list the sources and types of risks and threats, including fraud, identified by the security analysis evaluation made by the University of Newcastle into electronic transmission of prescriptions; and what countermeasures have been put in place. (Evaluation in Library Dep 04/800). - Inc ref to "Report on Security Assessment of the ETP pilots", copy in Library.

Answer: Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2004, Official Report, column 393W, on prescriptions, if he will list the sources and types of risks and threats, including fraud, identified by the security analysis evaluation made by the University of Newcastle into electronic transmission of prescriptions; and what countermeasures have been put in place. [163842] Ms Rosie Winterton: The information was presented in a report to the Department by the Sowerby Centre for Health Informatics at the University of Newcastle entitled "Report on Security Assessment of the ETP pilots", a copy of which has been placed in the Library. The lessons learned on fraud prevention from the earlier pilots are being taken into account in the design of the national model for the electronic transmissions of prescriptions and as part of the overall security architecture of the NHS Care Records Service.

Secondary information