FOI-03604

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

##Request

_I would like to request total items, total quantity and total Net Ingredient cost for each BNF Code reimbursed by NHSBSA for October 2025 to December 2025 (each month separately please). I require the totals to be presented at BNF Code level, divided into the standard 5 year age bandings and further separated by patient gender. 
I would like data for prescriptions dispensed and prescribed in England. Prescribing is to be split by Sub ICB (SICBL) and limited to prescribing within a SICBL._

_I would like to receive the following fields:_
 
•_AGE_BAND_

•_BNF_CODE_ 

•_GENDER_ 

•_ITEMS_ 

•_NIC_GBP_ 

•_SICBL_CODE_ 

•_SICBL_NAME_ 

•_TOTAL_QUANTITY_ 

•_YEAR_MONTH_ 
 
_Age bands should be labelled up as follows:_ 

•	_Aged 0-4_ 

•	_Aged 10-14_ 

•	_Aged 15-19_ 

•	_Aged 20-24_ 

•	_Aged 25-29_ 

•	_Aged 30-34_ 

•	_Aged 35-39_ 

•	_Aged 40-44_ 

•	_Aged 45-49_ 

•	_Aged 50-54_ 

•	_Aged 55-59_ 

•	_Aged 5-9_ 

•	_Aged 60-64_ 

•	_Aged 65-69_ 

•	_Aged 70-74_ 

•	_Aged 75-79_ 

•	_Aged 80-84_ 

•	_Aged 85-89_ 

•	_Aged 90-94_ 

•	_Aged 95+_ 

•	_UNKNOWN_ 

##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__	

The data source was 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.

__Drugs__

This dataset suppresses age band and gender for the prescribing of sensitive medicines based on the most recent data held in the NHSBSA Data Warehouse. As per the most recent guidelines, where suppression has been applied, the age band has been replaced with an asterisk (*) and the gender has been replaced with 'Not Known'.

Medicines in list A are considered sensitive regardless of the number of items. Medicines in list E are considered sensitive if they match a specified quantity. The full list of sensitive medicines relevant for this time period can be found in the document: SENSITIVE_MEDS.csv.

Please note, BNF code 190201000AABLBL with BNF name 'Exception Handler Unspecified Item' appears in the SENSITIVE_MEDS.csv. 

A prescribed/paid drug may come out as "Unspecified" when:

a) 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. Any prescribing that falls into this category is captured as an ‘unspecified drug’.

b) There are cases when a drug is not classified under BNF structure, prescribing of those drugs will show as "Unspecified". (e.g. secondary care products). 

__Time Period__
	
October 2025 - December 2025

__Organisation Data__

The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in England. The dataset is limited to items prescribed within an SICBL.

__Data Queries__

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk 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 communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk 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 Information Services Data Warehouse, 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 Prescription Services
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log