Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of fines in relation to dental and prescription charges.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) issues penalty charge notices (PCNs) for incorrect claims for exemption from National Health Service dental and prescription charges.

To ensure the integrity of the exemption system the NHS BSA has recently increased the number of checks. In 2016/17, 365,181 PCNs for dental charges and 975,065 for prescription charges were issued. This represents an increase of 90.11% and 90.23%, respectively, on 2015/16. There is a clear process for patients to appeal a PCN if they believe it is unjustified.