Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘Since September 2014 and September 2023, please provide the following information for each year:

1. Total number of prescriptions dispensed in England.

2. The number of prescriptions that were paid for by the recipient and a breakdown of the number of prescriptions that were not paid for by the recipient, eg., they were in receipt of welfare, not liable due to age (too old / too young - please specify), other reasons (please specify).

3. The number of prescriptions that were dispensed without payment by the recipient, but later determined that they were liable to pay.

4. What is the annual cost of prescriptions dispensed to people who do not pay for prescriptions but who are actually liable to pay and who don't? How much money is subsequently recovered each year?

5. What is the estimated annual cost of prescription fraud each year?’

[On 9 December 2023 you clarified your request as follows]

‘Following your request for clarification, please provide details for:

c. Calendar years with year 2014 and 2023 part only’

Your request was received on 17 November 2023, with clarification received on 9 December 2023, and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to gain a full understanding of the data.

Questions 1 & 2

NHSBSA - 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.

Dataset – The data covers all prescription items dispensed in England where an exemption category has been captured or a charge has been paid.

Time Period – September 2014 - September 2023 (figures are presented by calendar year (part year for 2014 and 2023).

Organisation Data - The data is for all prescription items dispensed in the community in England.

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

Exemption Categories- The overall high level exemption rate is as robust as it can be in terms of the data we hold.

However, the data in relation to the standalone exemption categories does have significant limitations in terms of its quality.

This is due to how information has been captured during our scanning process and even for prescriptions received via the Electronic Prescribing System, normally higher quality data, there is considerable uncertainty due to the increasing use of the Real Time Exemption Checking service (RTEC). Exemptions determined using RTEC are classified as “No Declaration/Declaration Not Specific” and this is likely to include a large but unknown number of prescriptions for those standalone exemption categories.

Exemption Categories included within the data are as follows:

• Under 16 / Aged 60 Or Over
• Aged 16-18 And In Full Time Education
• Aged 60 Or Over
• HC2 Charges
• HRT Pre-payment Certificate
• Income Based Job-seekers Allowance
• Income Support
• Maternity Exemption
• Medical Exemption
• NHS Tax Credit Exemption Certificate
• No Declaration/Declaration Not Specific
• Non-Chargeable Contraceptive
• Pension Guarantee Credit
• Pre-Payment Certificate
• Sexual Health
• Unassigned
• Universal Credit

• War/MOD pensioner exemption

• Chargeable at Current Rate

• Chargeable at Previous Rate

Question 3

We are unable to provide the ‘overall number of prescriptions that were dispensed without payment by the recipient, but later determined that they were liable to pay’ as we only sample a percentage of available prescriptions and therefore, the requested information isn’t held by NHSBSA for all prescriptions. Therefore, we have provided the number of prescriptions identified via the Prescription Exemption Checking Service process and therefore held by NHSBSA.

Question 4

As above, we have provided the prescription value issued based on the number of prescriptions identified via the PECS process. Please note, the recovered value includes money recovered against the prescription charge plus any additional penalty charge and the value is shown in Column D of the csv file.

Question 5

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

The NHSBSA do not hold this information as we only sample a percentage of prescriptions.

However it is possible that NHS England may hold some or all of the information you require. They can be contacted at:

NHS England

PO Box 16738

Redditch

B97 9PT

Telephone 0300 311 22 33

Email: england.contactus@nhs.net  

Web http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

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:

“ePACT2, 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.