FOI-03894

##Request

You asked us:

<i>Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request prescribing data for systemic antibiotics (BNF section 5.1) dispensed in England.

Specifically, I would be grateful if you could provide the following datasets covering the period January 2016 to December 2023.

Dataset 1 – Antibiotic prescribing by age and sex

Annual counts of prescription items for systemic antibiotics (BNF section 5.1), broken down by:
<ul>
<li>GP practice code</li>
<li>Year</li>
<li>Integrated Care Board (ICB) code or name associated with the practice </li>
<li>Age band (preferably 5-year age groups with younger children separated, e.g. 0–1, 2–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–20, etc.) </li>
<li>Sex (Male, Female, Not Known / Indeterminate if available)</li>
<li>Number of prescription items</li></ul>

Dataset 2 – Antibiotic prescribing by antibiotic class

Annual counts of prescription items for systemic antibiotics (BNF section 5.1), broken down by:
<ul>
<li>GP practice code</li>
<li>Year</li>
<li>Integrated Care Board (ICB) code or name associated with the practice</li> 
<li>Antibiotic class (BNF subsection, e.g. penicillins, macrolides, tetracyclines, urinary tract antibiotics)</li>
<li>Number of prescription items</ul>

If possible, I would prefer the data to be provided in CSV format.

If any part of this request exceeds the cost limit under the FOI Act, I would be grateful if you could advise how the request might be refined so that it can be fulfilled. For reference, dataset 1 would be more valuable for my research aims.

For context, I am requesting these data for academic research (LSHTM) examining variation in antibiotic prescribing patterns across England.</i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 10 June 2026. 

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

##Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested, and a copy has been published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03894

Due to the large size of the files we cannot email these to you.

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.
	
This FOI Response consists of 9 data files:

Antibiotic items by GP practice, age band and gender

     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2016.csv -  461,576 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2017.csv -  441,668 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2018.csv -  424,017 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2019.csv -  408,822 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2020.csv -  360,940 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2021.csv -  317,823 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2022.csv -  324,265 rows of data
     FOI03894_Dataset_1_2023.csv -  321,442 rows of data

Antibiotic items by GP practice and BNF Paragraph

     FOI03894_Dataset_2.csv -  599,492 rows of data

<strong>Data Source</strong>	

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

<strong>Exclusions</strong>

The Data excludes: 
	<ul><li>Items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification. </li>
	<li> Prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in Prisons, Hospitals and Private prescriptions.</li>
	<li>Items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.</li>
	<li>Items supplied as part of a Pharmacy First consultation or service.</li></ul>

<strong>Time Period</strong>	

Answers are based on January 2016 to December 2023 processing data, presented as calendar years.

<strong>Drugs</strong>

Limited to the following BNF section: 0501 - Antibacterial drugs

Note that the BNF classifications are a guide for a product's main use, and does not guarantee clinical indication for any prescription.

<strong>Organisation Data</strong>

Only items that were prescribed by a GP practice in England and dispensed in the community in England have been included

<strong>Age</strong>

NHSBSA stores information on the age of the recipient of each prescription as it was read by computer from images of paper prescriptions or as attached to message sent through the electronic prescription system. 

NHSBSA data warehouse applies a calculated age logic shown that checks for any inconsistent information across the available sources and may result in ages being reported as missing or unknown. This is explained in more detail here: 

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2018-02/180115%20Age%20Logic%20Summary%20Flow%20Chart%20-%20Revised%20Layout.pdf 

Additional checks have been carried out to assess the capture rate and accuracy of the stored patient information from scanned prescriptions. The latest results for 2020 showed that for both paper and electronic prescriptions patient age was captured from 94.88% of prescription forms and the accuracy of scanned age data was 99.95%.

##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” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:<br>
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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.


Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log