NHS Protect is part of the NHS Business Services Authority of the National Health Service. It has responsibility in England for tackling fraud, violence, bribery, corruption, criminal damage, theft and other unlawful action such as market-fixing. It also has responsibility for tackling fraud in the NHS in Wales.
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Theft
In July 2014 a former NHS employee, Barry Cosson, was sentenced to five years in prison, following an investigation by NHS Protect. Cosson had defrauded the NHS of £2.2 million when he managed the payment systems for East Sussex Primary Care Trusts.
Price fixing
In June 2013 the Daily Telegraph infiltrated reporters into the annual Pharmacy Congress to investigate malpractice in the market for Specials. These products are generally individually priced. In November 2013 the paper reported that "The prices of more than 20,000 drugs could have been artificially inflated, with backhanders paid to chemists who agreed to sell them" and that NHS Protect had mounted an investigation.
Violence against staff
In November 2013 it was reported that the number of criminal sanctions taken in cases of violence against NHS Staff had risen from 1257 in 2011/2 to 1458 in 2012/3, a rise of 15.9%. There was a rise of 5.8% in total reported assaults from 59,744 in 2011-12 to 63,199 in 2012-13.