FOI-03782

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

##Request

You asked us:

<i>In the process of writing up, I realised that I had not requested an additional total for the whole population under the age of 25; only the strata.  To understand the affected population total under the age of 25, could you please add a total 0-25 for the three categories of BNF, the three geographies (London and the South East, NHS Sussex and WellBN) and the four years (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years?).  I do no longer need the breakdown by gender in this total as patients may be recorded more than once when breaking by gender.</i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 28 April 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 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: ePACT2
Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on prescriptions and dispensed in the community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration. It includes items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England. English prescribing that has been dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man is also included.
 
The data excludes:

* items not dispensed, disallowed and those returned to the contractor for further clarification. <br>
* prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in prisons, hospitals and private prescriptions.<br>
* items prescribed but not presented for dispensing or not submitted to NHS Prescription Services by the dispenser.
 
##Time Period: 
April 2021-March 2025. Data is aggregated by financial year.
 
##Data: 
The data indicates the number of items prescribed to patients under the age of 25 of medication within the following BNF Paragraphs- Female sex hormones and their modulators (060401), Male sex hormones and antagonists (060402) and Hormone antagonists (080304).
 
A unique patient count of patients prescribed medication within the three paragraphs is also provided. 
 
The data provided covers prescribing that has been dispensed to patients within a community setting. Please note that we do not hold data on off label prescribing, nor the medical conditions that prescriptions have been prescribed for.
 
The data for this FOI is presented in three parts, each covering the above prescribing for a different regional geography;
 
FOI_03599_P1- shows data for prescribing within the London (Y56) and South East (Y59) NHS Commissioning regions.
 
FOI_03599_P2- shows data for prescribing within the Sub-Integrated Care Board location of NHS Sussex- 09D (formerly known as NHS Brighton and Hove CCG)
 
FOI_03599_P3- shows data for prescribing by WellBN Healthcare GP Practice (G81638)
 
##BNF Code:
The BNF Code is a 15-digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF, and the last 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. Most of these items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23).
 
##Patient Identification
Where patient identifiable figures have been reported they are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities.  Please note, patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form and based on the criteria used for this analysis, patient information (age and NHS number) was only available for 99.67% of prescription items. 
 
The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS number as captured from the prescription image. 
 
Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing.  Results are presented by age band (Under 25). Please note it is possible that a single patient may be included in the results for more than one age band where a patient has received prescribing at different ages during a financial year. 
 
The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients.  For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years, age bands and ICBs. 
 
##Items:
Shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

##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: “ePACT2, 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 Presciption Services
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log