FOI-03300

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 

##Request 

<p><i>‘Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request data showing by month and by Integrated Care Board (ICB), the number of prescriptions processed by each Dispensing Appliance Contractor (DAC) in England.</i></p>

<p><i>Please provide this data in CSV or Excel format, with the following fields (or the closest available equivalents):</i></p>

<p><i>MONTH</i></p>

<p><i>DISPENSER_CODE</i></p>

<p><i>DISPENSER_NAME</i></p>

<p><i>ICB_CODE</i></p>

<p><i>ICB_NAME</i></p>

<p><i>PATIENT_COUNT (or number of prescription items processed, if “patient count” is unavailable)</i></p>

<p><i>If possible, please include data for the most recent 12 month period available.</i></p>

<p><i>If any data elements are not directly recorded at ICB level, please provide the nearest available breakdown that shows DAC activity by commissioning area or equivalent geography.’</i></p>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 23 October 2025.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). 

##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 

When prescriptions are processed by NHSBSA data capture, prescriptions sometimes contain prescribing of medicines that were not populated on the NHSBSA drug database at the time. This type of order will be captured as an ‘unspecified drug.’  Data for prescribing of unlicensed cannabis-based medicines has been taken from data captured as unspecified prescribing. Unlicensed cannabis-based medicines are identified by an additional review process which occurs after the prescriptions have been processed. The items identified by this review are reported against the date that the prescription was written and not necessarily when they were submitted. Therefore, these figures may be subject to change if the prescription is submitted to the NHSBSA in a later month. 

##Dataset 

The data shows the total number of items dispensed and patient count by English Dispensing Contractors in the community. 

##Time Period 

Monthly data from September 2024 to August 2025. 

##Organisation Data 

English Dispensing Contractors along with their respective Integrated Care Board (ICB). 

##Items 

Items show the number of times a product appears on a prescription form, not the quantity prescribed. 

##Patient Information 

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 (NHS number) was only available for 93.72% of prescription items.  

The patient count figures are based on a distinct count of NHS number as captured from the prescription image.  

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 months. 

##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 2025”. 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: DAC, Dispensing Appliance Contractor, ICB
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log