Request

You asked us:

Thank you for your response under FoI-01596. This request seeks the same information, but for a more recent time interval.

Please may I request the following information under Freedom of Information: the number of antibacterial drug items that were prescribed by NHS general dental practitioners and dispensed in the community in England between 1 October 2023 and 31 May 2025, inclusive. Please may this information be provided as the following antibacterial drug items (related BNF codes) and the corresponding number of items that were dispensed each month, presented as monthly totals at drug level: Phenoxymethylpenicillin (0501011P0) Amoxicillin (0501013B0) Co-amoxiclav (0501013K0) Cefalexin (0501021L0) Cefradine (0501021M0) Doxycycline hyclate (0501030I0) Oxytetracycline (0501030T0) Tetracycline (0501030V0) Doxycycline monohydrate (0501030Z0) Azithromycin (0501050A0) Clarithromycin (0501050B0) Erythromycin (0501050C0) Erythromycin ethylsuccinate (0501050H0) Erythromycin stearate (0501050N0) Clindamycin hydrochloride (0501060D0) Metronidazole (0501110C0). I wound be grateful if this data could be provided electronically

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 1 September 2025.

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

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.

Items in BNF 0501 prescribed by dentists and dispensed in the community in England

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 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.
• 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.

This dataset shows the number of items at BNF drug presentation level for the requested BNF chemical substances in BNF Section 0501 Antibacterial drugs.

Time Period: October 2023 - May 2025 (data is aggregated on a monthly basis)

Organisation Data: The data is at national level and is for all English dental prescribing that has been dispensed in the community in England.

Items: shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03139

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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: “ePACT2, 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.