Thank you for your request for information about the following: Request

Please can I request an update to FOI-02932, for the same query but to reflect the next data month available - that is, May 2025 (Year_Month 202505)? I understand that this data should now be available.

Original Request

I would like to request some specific information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on prescription activity within a therapeutic area I am currently investigating. I believe this information is held by yourselves at the NHS Business Services Authority as part of the recording of reimbursement activity, but the specific information I am seeking is not available from the data published on your site.

I am looking to ascertain the number of monthly prescription items, cost and quantity of each medicine included in list A (below), that are being prescribed to patients who are not also in receipt of any of the medicines from the group defined in list B (also below).

Please could I have this information for the latest available reporting month, and 23 previous months, to enable me to look at the past two-years of prescriptions.

This information at a national (England) level would be most useful. Secondly, I would also like the information at ICB level if this is practical within resource constraints.

Desired Output Format

Either XLSX or CSV format, with the following columns:

• Date
• BNFID (from list A)
• Items to patients not getting anything from list B
• "NIC" to patients not getting anything from list B
• Quantity to patients not getting anything from list B
• Location (England, or ICB code)

Example Output

Nov-23 / 0601023ABAAAAAA / 123 / £456 / 234 / England Nov-23 / 0601023AIBBAAAA / 345 / £678 / 901 / England

List A

Medicines with the following BNFID prefixes:

0601023AB, 0601023AI, 0601023AQ, 0601023AS, 0601023AW, 0601023AZ, 0601023Y0*

Full BNFIDs:

0601023ABAAAAAA 0601023ABBBAAAA 0601023ABBCAAAA 0601023AIAAAAAA 0601023AIAAABAB 0601023AIAAACAC 0601023AIBBAAAA 0601023AIBBABAB 0601023AIBBACAC 0601023AQAAAAAA 0601023AQAAABAB 0601023AQAAACAC 0601023AQAAADAD 0601023AQBBAAAA 0601023AQBBABAB 0601023AQBBACAC 0601023AQBBADAD 0601023ASAAAAAA 0601023ASAAABAB 0601023ASBBAAAA 0601023ASBBABAB 0601023AWAAAAAA 0601023AWAAABAB 0601023AWAAACAC 0601023AWAAADAD 0601023AWAAAEAE 0601023AWAAAFAF 0601023AWAAAGAG 0601023AWAAAHAH 0601023AWAAAIAI 0601023AWBBAAAA 0601023AWBBABAB 0601023AWBBACAC 0601023AWBCAAAD 0601023AWBCABAE 0601023AWBCACAF 0601023AWBDAAAB 0601023AWBDABAG 0601023AWBDACAH 0601023AWBDADAI 0601023AWBDAEAJ 0601023AZAAAAAA 0601023AZAAABAB 0601023Y0AAAAAA 0601023Y0AAABAB 0601023Y0AAACAC 0601023Y0AAADAD 0601023Y0AAAEAE 0601023Y0BBAAAA 0601023Y0BBABAB 0601023Y0BCAAAC 0601023Y0BCABAD 0601023Y0BCACAE

List B

Medicines with any of the following BNFID prefixes:

0601011 (7-digit) 0601012 (7-digit) 0601021 (7-digit) 0601022 (7-digit) 0601040 (7-digit) 0601023B (8-digit) 0601023I (8-digit) 0601023R (8-digit) 0601023S (8-digit) 0601023U (8-digit) 0601023V (8-digit) 0601023W (8-digit) 0601023X (8-digit) 0601023Z (8-digit) 0601023A0 (9-digit) 0601023AA (9-digit) 0601023AC (9-digit) 0601023AD (9-digit) 0601023AE (9-digit) 0601023AF (9-digit) 0601023AG (9-digit) 0601023AH (9-digit) 0601023AJ (9-digit) 0601023AK (9-digit) 0601023AL (9-digit) 0601023AM (9-digit) 0601023AN (9-digit) 0601023AP (9-digit) 0601023AR (9-digit) 0601023AU (9-digit) 0601023AV (9-digit) 0601023AX (9-digit) 0601023AY (9-digit)

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 17 July 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 and notes explaining it is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Prescription Services Overview

NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for pharmacy contractors, appliance contractors, dispensing doctors and personal administration. This 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 1 billion prescription items and payments totalling over £9 billion each year. The information gathered from this process is then used to provide insights on costs and trends in prescribing in England and Wales to over 25,000 registered NHS and Department of Health and Social Care users.

Exclusions

• 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.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Time Period

May 2025

Organisation Data

The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England.

Drugs

Drug Group A: Limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes:

0601023AB*, 0601023AI*, 0601023AQ*, 0601023AS*, 0601023AW*, 0601023AZ*, 0601023Y0*

Drug Group B: Limited to drugs with the following BNF prefixes:

0601011*, 0601012*, 0601021*, 0601022*, 0601040*, 0601023B*, 0601023I*, 0601023R*, 0601023S*, 0601023U*, 0601023V*, 0601023W*, 0601023X*, 0601023Z*, 0601023A0*, 0601023AA*, 0601023AC*, 0601023AD*, 0601023AE*, 0601023AF*, 0601023AG*, 0601023AH*, 0601023AJ*, 0601023AK*, 0601023AL*, 0601023AM*, 0601023AN*, 0601023AP*, 0601023AR*, 0601023AU*, 0601023AV*, 0601023AX*, 0601023AY*

Identified Patients

Prescriptions are only included if an NHS Number has been captured during NHSBSA processing.

Patients

Data is limited to prescriptions from patients with prescribing from Drug Group A, with no prescribing from Drug Group B, in the same month and ICB. This is consistent across both organisational data outputs.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk quoting 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 licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:
Open Government Licence v3.0

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.