Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of penalty charge notices for individuals incorrectly claiming free prescriptions.

We have made no such assessment. The Department and NHS England have delegated responsibility to the NHS Business Services Authority to carry out checking and recovery procedures on their behalf where claims for exemption from National Health Service prescriptions and dental charges cannot be validated.

It is right that the Government takes steps to recoup money for the NHS that is lost to fraud, including using penalty charge notices, so that it can be reinvested into caring for patients.