FOI-03743

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

__Request__

<p><i>‘Could I request the following dataset:</i></p>

<p><i>Could you please provide the total cost (Net Ingredient Cost).</i></p>

<p><i>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).</i></p>

<p><i>Please break it down by GP practice code.</i></p>

<p><i>We are only interested in chapter 23 of the drug tariff</i></p>

<p><i>We would like all available data from 1st September 2025’</i></p>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 14 April 2026. 

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. 

__Our response__

__September 2025 and October 2025__

Under Section 21 of the FOIA, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.  

The information you requested is available from the web links below: 

September 2025

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03327 

October 2025

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03543 

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21 

__November 2025, December 2025 and January 2026__

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. 

__NHSBSA__

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. 

• Items supplied under NHS pharmacy advanced services. 

__Time Period__

Items prescribed in November 2025 to January 2026 inclusive (with each month given as a seperate file). 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. 90.38% of prescription items issued over this time period for Chapter 23 items were EPS. 

__Data Queries__

Please contact <a href=mailto:foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a> 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 <a href=mailto:communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>. 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 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: BNF Chapter 23, NHS Prescriptions
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log