01 February 2002
The announcement came as the CFS signed an agreement with the Association of Chief Police Officers setting out how they will work together when police powers are needed during criminal investigations.
Health minister Lord Hunt said that since it became operational in January 1999, the CFS had identified and stopped frauds totalling £14m, obtained 91 prosecutions and had been successful in 143 civil and NHS disciplinary cases. In three years it had lost only one case.
The CFS expects 54 criminal prosecutions this year and is due to recover around £7m in 2001/02, compared with £4.2m in 2000/01 and £800,000 in its first year of operation.
Losses on patient prescription fraud had fallen from £117m to £69m between 1998/99 and 1999/2000, a 41% reduction.
Fraud by NHS staff such as doctors, dentists and opticians fell by between 18% and 30%. In one case, the CFS found a West Country GP had fraudulently obtained £800,000. It was able to freeze the doctor's assets and recover them for the NHS.
Recovered funds go directly into patient care in the area that has been defrauded. Jim Gee, the director of the CFS, told Public Finance: 'We are freeing up money for better patient care. That is not rhetoric.'
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