Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:32 pm on 23 May 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:32, 23 May 2018

Well, we start from a point of basic disagreement, because the research undertaken in Portsmouth is not something that we recognise—or indeed NHS England recognise—in terms of the scale of NHS fraud, and there are a number of suppositions within the research. So, it just isn't a figure that we recognise. We do, though, take seriously challenges about NHS fraud activity. We have a counter fraud unit that works not only in Wales but works with colleagues in England too. Part of what the research was talking about were things that you wouldn't necessarily consider to be fraud. You think about the commercial abuse of some relationships, which is part of what they were thinking about, and, actually, we have a range of legal actions, together with other jurisdictions within the UK, about infringements of patents and about abusing market positions. The Counsel General has to look at some of these issues as well about our position on legal action ongoing, but at present, of course, we're able to do that most effectively because we're able to make the best use of European Union regulations. That, of course, will become more difficult should we leave the European Union in due course.