Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Please treat this email as a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. I am requesting the following information, provided without delay so that I can confirm the lawfulness of this penalty charge.

• Please provide a copy of your policy which explains the basis of penalty charges and how they operate

• Please provide any documents or policies which evidence your organisation’s consideration of its duties under the Equality Act 2010, including s149 in relation to penalty charges

Your request was received on 12 October 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

Question 1

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

For information regarding the costs incurred: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/understanding-penalty-charges

Pharmacies submit their NHS prescriptions to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) at the end of each month to be scanned to our processing system. Once scanned, we process all NHS prescriptions and calculate how much money the pharmacy needs to be reimbursed. At this point, the NHSBSA will check random NHS prescriptions that have not been paid for because the patient, or their representative, stated they were exempt. Processing more than four million NHS prescription items every working day, the checking of NHS prescription forms is carried out at the earliest opportunity. The enquiry letter that is issued usually relates to an NHS prescription claimed free of charge up to three months prior.

NHS Penalty Charge Notices are issued in accordance with the National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Regulations 1999: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2794/contents/made and the National Health Service (Penalty Charge) Wales Regulations 2001: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2001/1300/contents/made.

Question 2

Under Section 21 of the Act, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. NHSBSA’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion policy available from the following web link:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/our-policies/diversity-and-inclusion

A wellbeing and inclusion assessment has not been carried out for the entirety of the Prescription Exemption Checking service (PECS) or the Dental Exemption Checking Service (DECS). However please find attached a wellbeing and inclusion assessment that was carried out on the 3 letter process for PECS and DECS for restarting the service following the pause taken during COVID.

Data Queries

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: “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.