Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am making an FOI request under the Freedom of Information Act

In (A) 2022 and separately (B) in the first six months of 2023

1. How many penalty charge notices were issued to people who had claimed free prescriptions?
2. What was the total cash value of those PCNs?
3. How much of that cash value was (a) prescription charge and (b) penalty
4. How many were overturned?
5. What was the value of those overturned?
6. How many fines remain unpaid?
7. What was the administrative cost from start to finish of enforcing prescription charges?

You clarified your request as follows:

Q: For point 7 by “start to finish” do you mean the start of the exemption checking service?

A: I meant the end to end costs in the two time periods specified.

Your clarified request was received on 11 August 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Questions 1-6

A copy of the information is attached. The data is correct as at 9 August 2023

We have defined overturned Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) as those which were cancelled, and those where the exemption was later confirmed.

Question 7

(A) £7.55m

(B) £6.27m

The cost of running the service is covered by the monies recovered through Penalty Charge Notices.

Data Queries

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