Sunak ‘blocked funds’ to fight health fraud

Former chancellor accused of ‘short-sightedness’ for rejecting NHS drive that could have saved billions

‘The Treasury could have saved the taxpayer a hell of a lot of money if it had spent a bit up front’

‘It was a classic example of the shortsightedness we have seen over the past couple of years’

RISHI SUNAK’s Treasury blocked extra funds to clamp down on fraudulent “health tourism” and other scams targeting the NHS, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

A “very modest” request for additional resources to tackle health service fraud was rejected, sources have said, with the former chancellor accused of being “completely blind” to the issue.

In England alone the NHS is vulnerable to more than £1.2 billion of fraud each year. It takes a number of forms, including corruption in procurement, staff stealing through false accounting and criminals wrongfully obtaining prescription medicine to sell on.

According to the NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA), one of the top four areas of fraud by referrals in 2021-22 was overseas visitors illegally accessing free hospital care.

The NHSCFA estimates that at least £39.3 million could be at risk to this type of fraud – enough to cover the cost of about 6,550 NHS knee replacements.

A report from the authority warns of “the possibility that as travel resumes to pre-pandemic levels fraudulent access may see an increase in reporting”.

Sources have told The Telegraph that the Department for Health requested a “very modest sum of money” to boost counter-fraud in last year’s Spending Review. The bid covered £6.5 million over three years for additional counterfraud work and £11 million over three years to support the efforts of individual NHS trusts.

However, the health service received “not a penny of that”.

One Whitehall source said that they believed the bid could have raised “10 times as much as it cost”.

“The Treasury could have saved the taxpayer a hell of a lot of money if it had been willing to spend a little bit up front,” they said. “It was a classic example of the short-sightedness we have seen over the past couple of years.”

A separate request by the Cabinet Office for extra resources to combat fraud was also “rejected outright”.

Last week, this newspaper reported that the Government was set to fall short of a target to recoup £1billion lost to fraud and error on Covid support schemes. Another source familiar with Spending Review talks said there had been money “thrown” at HM Revenue and Customs for fraud prevention, “but nothing provided elsewhere”.

Pointing the finger at Mr Sunak, they said: “He was completely blind to all this.” In his campaign for the Conservative leadership, the former chancellor has put cutting NHS waste at the centre of his health policies, including a pledge to charge people £10 for missed GP and hospital appointments.

A government spokesman said that “firm action” was being taken to “clamp down on fraud, including investing in counter fraud expertise to help protect every pound of taxpayers’ money”.

They said that in the Spending Review, the Government had continued to fund the NHSCFA to “tackle fraud which takes taxpayers’ money away from patient care” as part of a DHSC settlement worth £177.4billion in 2024-25.

Separately, allies of Boris Johnson said it was Downing Street’s intention to cut VAT on energy bills earlier this year, but the plan was blocked by Mr Sunak. Since leaving the Treasury last month, Mr Sunak has announced he now supports a VAT cut if the energy price cap exceeds £3,000 as expected next month.

In an apparent swipe at the former chancellor, Mr Johnson declared at an event in Birmingham that cutting VAT on household fuel bills “turns out to be easier than we thought.”

A spokesman for Mr Sunak’s campaign said: “Cutting VAT alone would not have provided nearly enough support for those on low or middle incomes given the energy price cap rise.”