FOI-03543

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

##Request

_Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I was wondering if you would be able to develop on top of the FOI Request FOI- 03327._

_Could I request the following dataset:_

-	_Could you please provide the total cost (Net Ingredient Cost)._

-	_Please provide the total cost broken down by BNF code, prescribed date and practice code.(i.e. cost for every single day using EPS, as opposed to aggregated monthly)._

-	_Please break it down by GP practice code._

-	_We are only interested in chapter 23 of the drug tariff._

-	_We would like data for October 2025 in the same format._

_Please let me know if you have any questions or require further clarification._

##Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for pharmacy contractors, appliance contractors, dispensing doctors and personal administration with information then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors in England for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings (other arrangements are in place for making payments to dispensing doctors and personal administration). This involves processing over 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide information on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.
	
__Data Source__	

The data source is the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

__Exclusions__

The data excludes: 

• items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification. 

• prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in prisons, hospitals and private prescriptions.

• items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.

__Time Period__	

Items prescribed in October 2025. Note that most data published by the NHSBSA is calculated based on the month that it is processed for payment (after submission by the dispensing contractor) and therefore matching against other datasets with this data may not be reliable. Later submissions may still be made for prescription dates in the months given.

__Organisation Data__	

Limited to items prescribed and dispensed in England.

__Medications__

Limited to items that fall into Chapter 23 of the BNF.

__Prescription type__

Limited to prescriptions issued under the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS). The NHSBSA does not hold prescribed dates for paper prescriptions, so these cannot be included in a daily breakdown. 88.51% of prescription items issued over this time period for Chapter 23 items were EPS.

__Data Queries__

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

__Reusing the data and copyright__

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ 

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse, NHSBSA Copyright 2026”. Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.



Tags: NHS Prescription Services
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log