Thank you for your request for information about the following:

A current list of:

1) Independent Pharmacies - less than 5;

2) Multiple/Chain of Pharmacies - more than 5, e.g. Boots, Lloyds etc within the UK so to include England, Scotland, N.Ireland & Wales please.

I have put from 1st Jan 2023 as wasn’t sure how to define the time period but basically the most up to date list you have please.

On 2 June 2023 you clarified the following:

I am hoping you can help by sharing the list of the UK based pharmacies, which shows the name and address of the pharmacies which makes up your data set. The data on the site just shows the NUMBER of pharmacies.

There are 2 numbers:

one for pharmacies which are “independent” ie less than 5 one for pharmacies which are a group or a corporate, ie more than 5

Please could you share the details behind these numbers so we can improve our service to pharmacies.

Your request was received on 22 May 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

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.

Time Period

Data is correct as held in the NHSBSA data warehouse when ran on 21/06/2023 for the latest month end - 31/5/2023

Pharmacies

Data is limited to English Pharmacies and does not include Out Of Hours contractors, Distance Sellers or private dispensing accounts. Pharmacies are only included if they were open at close of business on 31/5/2023. This figure may differ from that published if there have been any late notified openings.

Pharmacy size

Pharmacies are only included if they were open at close of business on 31/5/2023 and only open pharmacies on this date are used to calculate chain size. If group structure changes have happened between the reporting date and the date the data has been produced, the chain size will reflect as of the date the data is produced and so this data may show differences in the split of pharmacies. Pharmacy chains may have been larger or smaller than indicated at different points in the financial year.

Pharmacy chain sizes have been determined based on the largest of the following: the number of Y code links (financial links), trading name links, and limited company name links, and by the independent (1-5 pharmacy) flag. In cases where no links are found but the pharmacy does not have a flag to indicate they are smaller than 6, they are included in the ‘6 or more’ category.

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foidata@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

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 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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.