Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Fraud) – 17 June 1986

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Fraud) on 17th June 1986.

Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will describe the circumstances in which information from the National Health Service central register may be made available to regional office staff or to local office staff in the course of investigating actual or suspected fraud by social security claimants; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Major On request from a DHSS regional controller, National Health Service central register will supply the name and date of birth appropriate to a NHS number shown on a medical card that has been used as a means of identification when cashing a social security giro cheque which subsequently has been found to he fraudulent.

NHSCR assistance is provided on the grounds that a person who voluntarily produces a medical card as evidence of identity should be willing to accept a check on that identity by the authorities concerned; and if the card used does not relate to the person who produced it the proper holder has apparently lost it and the current holder has no title to it.