Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) fines have been issued and (b) individuals have been fined or required to repay the value of a prescription after the fact, due to an individual failing to pay for a prescription without a valid maternity exemption certificate in each of the last five years.

The following table shows the number of patients who declared they held a valid Maternity Exemption Certificate and who were issued with at least one penalty charge notice (PCN) and the number of PCNs issued in each of the last five years.

Source: the NHS Business Services Authority

PCNs are sometimes issued to patients who were entitled to claim free prescriptions due to data mismatches. This may be for reasons such as the patient has moved and not updated their address with their general practitioner or changed their name and not updated the exemption certificate. The patient is sent an enquiry letter asking to confirm their entitlement and any data updates can be undertaken at this stage and the case closed if appropriate. If the patient does not respond to the enquiry letter within 28 days, they will automatically be sent a penalty charge notice.