Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many investigations NHS Protect has undertaken relating to (a) fraud, (b) bribery, (c) corruption, (d) criminal damage, (e) theft, (f) violence, (g) market-fixing and (h) other unlawful action in each of the last five years.

NHS Protect investigates and seeks prosecutions in cases of fraud, bribery, corruption or other unlawful activity such as market-fixing that are serious or complex and are unable to be undertaken by local health bodies.

NHS Protect investigations are categorised as per offences that would be charged should prosecution take place. This categorisation does not necessarily reflect all elements of cases. Matters relating to bribery, corruption or unlawful activity such as market-fixing may therefore be categorised as fraud. Breaking down the number of cases in the form requested could only be done at disproportionate cost.

The number of investigations undertaken by NHS Protect for the last five years is shown in the following table.