FOI-03812

Thank you for your request for information about the following: 
 
##Request 
 
You asked us: 
 
<i>I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from the NHS BSA. Please may you provide me with: 
  
The total number of Clomifene, Tamoxifen and Raloxifene prescriptions in the UK over the last 10 years of broken down by: 
  
Gender (Male, Female, Non-binary/Other) 
  
Age (in the age bands 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90-100) 
  
Calendar year (2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015) 
  
For ease of response, I have provided a spreadsheet with one worksheet per medicine, rows split by gender and age band, and columns by calendar year. Please populate the relevant cells with the total number of prescriptions held. 
  
If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request. </i>
 
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 11 May 2026.  
 
We requested clarification on 18 May 2026 
 
<i>We only hold data back to April 2015, are you happy to receive this partial calendar year of information? </i>
 
You responded on 18 May 2026 
 
<i>Yes, it is fine with me to receive data on only part of the calendar 2015. </i>
 
We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.  
 
##Our response 
 
I am writing to advise you that the information you requested for prescriptions which were prescribed and dispensed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. We only hold information for England. For details of other home countries, please use the following contacts. 
 
##Scotland: 
 
Customer Service Desk <br>
NHS National Services Scotland <br>
Gyle Square <br>
1 South Gyle Crescent <br>
Edinburgh <br>
EH12 9EB 
 
Telephone: 0131 275 6665 <br>
Email: NSS.Communications@nhs.net  <br>
Website: www.isdscotland.org  <br>
Web form: http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/corporate/foi_request_form.php<br>   
FOI Scotland Act Disclosure log: http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/publications/foi_disclosures.php   
 
##Wales: 
 
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership <br>
Freedom of Information Requests <br>
4-5 Charnwood Court, <br>
Heol Billingsley, <br>
Parc Nantgarw, <br>
Cardiff <br>
CF15 7QZ 
 
Email: shared.services@wales.nhs.uk  
 
##Northern Ireland: 
 
Corporate Services Department <br>
HSC Business Services Organisation <br>
2 Franklin Street <br>
Belfast <br>
BT2 8DQ <br>
 
Telephone: 028 9032 4431 <br>
Website: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/  <br>
Email: Foi.bso@hscni.net <br>
FOI Disclosure log:http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/information/2107.htm  
 
##Remaining Information 
 
I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached. 
 
Please read the notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. 
 
NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for:  

•	pharmacy contractors <br>
•	appliance contractors <br>
•	dispensing doctors <br>
•	personal administration 
 
Information is 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 one billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is 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: 

Calendar years: 

•	2015 (April – December only) <br>
•	2016 <br>
•	2017 <br>
•	2018 <br>
•	2019 <br>
•	2020 <br>
•	2021 <br>
•	2022 <br>
•	2023 <br>
•	2024 <br>
•	2025 
  
##Organisation Data: 
The data is for items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey / Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England. 
  
##Data:  
This dataset is limited to the prescribing of the British National Formulary (BNF) chemical substances of: 

•	Clomifene citrate (BNF 0605010G0) 

•	Tamoxifen citrate (BNF 0803041S0)  

•	Raloxifene hydrochloride (BNF 0604011X0) 
 
It shows the number of items prescribed at BNF chemical substance level, split by age band and gender. 
  
##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). 
  
##Items:  
Shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed. 
  
##Age Bands:  
Age bands included are for 0-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, 80-89, 90-100 years or age. Where the age is unknown has also been included. 
  
The age held in our records may be subject to errors originating from either external data source such as the Electronic Prescribing System, the NHS Personal Demographics Service or the NHSBSA optical character recognition process used to extract data from paper prescriptions. 
 
The specific ages in this question may be subject to those errors. We do not systematically review, validate, or amend the data after it has been processed or recorded. 
  
##Gender:  
Patient gender has been reported using the latest patient gender information held by the NHSBSA Information Services data warehouse at the time that the data was extracted.  
 
This uses information from either the most recent Electronic Prescription Service message or from the last time that the NHSBSA received data about the patient's gender from NHS Personal Demographics Service. 
 
##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 gender) was only available for 98.63% of prescription items. 
 
##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