Request

We are requesting data under the Freedom of Information Act. For the years 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25, please can you provide the following data for each financial quarter for each individual performer-contract pair (such that there is one row of data for each unique combination of performer, contract and financial quarter):

- number of UDAs delivered

- and the number of claims

- And the number of claims which were DCP assisted

With the following information about each performer:

- Age, to be grouped in 3 yearly intervals starting at 22-24, 25-27, 28-30 etc until 63, where the last group would be 64 upwards

- Gender or Sex (whichever is recorded)

- Performer number (or another persistent unique identifier)

- Number of years since first fully registered on the NHS performers register (eg when they were first able to work independently as an NHS dentist)

- Number of years since registered with the GDC

- Whether the performer is a foundation dentist

- Whether the performer is a provider-performer

- Country of main dental qualification

- University of main dental qualification

- Number of years the dentist is associated with the contract number

We would also like to request the following information on the dental contract:

- Primary postcode associated with the practice

- Location V code

- Provider number of the contract

- Start date of the contract

- Indicator for the last month in which a contract was operating

Please note that when we specify performer, we would only like data for dentists, not DCPs. If any of the indicators are not held by BSA, please provide all that are. If any indicators are only available for certain time periods, please provide them for available periods and leave blank for other periods. If data files are too large to combine into one .csv file, please provide a separate .csv file for each financial year

Response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some the information you have requested and a copy of this information is attached.

We can confirm that we do hold the requested information regarding age and gender, but this information is exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA (personal information).

Section 40(2) is an absolute, prejudice-based exemption and therefore is exempt if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. In order for disclosure to comply with the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency principle, we either need the consent of the data subject(s) or there must be a legitimate interest in disclosure. In addition, the disclosure must be necessary to meet the legitimate interest and finally, the disclosure must not cause unwarranted harm.

As we do not have the consent of the data subject(s), the NHSBSA is therefore required to conduct a balancing exercise between legitimate interest of the applicant in disclosure against the rights and freedoms of the data subject(s).

The NHSBSA acknowledges that you have a legitimate interest in disclosure of the information in order to provide the full picture of the requested data held by the NHSBSA; however, we have concluded that disclosure of the requested information would cause unwarranted harm and therefore, section 40(2) is engaged. This is because there is a reasonable expectation that the personal data of dental providers processed by the NHSBSA remains confidential.

Please see the following link to view the section 40 exemption in full - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

As an alternative to providing the age band and gender of each NHS performer, we may be able to provide total counts of NHS performers for each age category and listed gender. If this information would be useful to you, we would be happy to consider this as a new Freedom of Information request.

The NHSBSA does not hold the following information:

• Number of years since first fully registered on the NHS performers register (eg when they were first able to work independently as an NHS dentist)

• Number of years since registered with the GDC

• University of main dental qualification

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 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.