Thank you for your request for information about the following:

This Freedom of Information request relates to the data associated with prescription charges, and prescription penalty notices in England as well as prepayment certificates.

Prepayment Certificates

1- How many Prepayment certificates have been supplied/sold to patients in England in each month for the last 10 years?

Can these sales/supply be broken down by location of sale. (E.g. in pharmacy, online, etc)

Penalty Charges

2- How many prescription charge Enquiry letters have been issued to patients in England since these began to be re-issued post pandemic, i.e. from September 2021 to present?

Please can this data be supplied by month of issue and Primary Care Network.

3- How many prescription charge Penalty Charge Notices have been issued to patients in England since these began to be re-issued post pandemic, i.e. from September 2021 to present?

Please can this data be broken down by month of issue and Primary Care Network

4- How many prescription charge Exemptions from penalty have been confirmed after subsequent enquiry letters to patient in England since these began to be re-issued post pandemic, i.e. from September 2021 to present?

Please can this data be broken down by month of issue and Primary Care Network

5- How many Easement cases have been provided to patient in England since these began to be re-issued post pandemic, i.e. from September 2021 to present?

Please can this data be broken down by month of issue and Primary Care Network

Date Range: 01/09/2021 – 20/07/2023

On 31 July 2023 you clarified the following:

We asked: Your request has asked for data to be broken down by month and Primary Care Network We don’t have Primary Care Network so we would be unable to do this. However, we do have integrated care board, could you confirm whether this would be ok to use instead?.

You answered: If you are able to break this down by ICB level that would be great. Your request was received on 20 July 2023 and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

Regarding question 1- We have supplied complete months data from January 2015. All older records have been deleted under the retention of data policy.

Regarding question 2- We have supplied complete months data. Prescription Exemption Checking Services cases were issued from December 2021 following the pause in the service delivery.

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foirequests@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: 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.