Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

Under the 2000 Freedom of Information Act, please tell me the number of opioids that have been prescribed every year since 2018? Please give me a breakdown of each opioid.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 6 August 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

The information you requested is available on the NHSBSA website at the below web link:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/prescription-cost-analysis-pca-annual-statistics

To access this, you can download each calendar year from the link provided, and filter on Column R for the appropriate BNF Sections (the Sections Peripheral opioid-receptor antagonists, Opioid analgesics and Opioid dependence should cover the data you are looking for).

The total number of prescription items is available in column W- the requestor would also be able to group the totals by Chemical Substance, or even specific Opioid presentations.

This covers between 2018 – 2024, we also have month by month data for 2025 available at the link below:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/prescription-cost-analysis-pca-monthly-data

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

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 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.