Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000:

1. The number of NHS England nicotine prescriptions (BNF section code: 4.10.2) by patient age for 2022 only using the ages 0 through to 25 inclusive.

2. The number of NHS England hypnotic prescriptions (BNF section code: 4.1.1) by patient age for 2022 only using the ages 0 through to 25 inclusive.’

[On 24 November 2023 you clarified your request as follows]

‘Thank you for your response. In reply to your first point I would like the data separated into each individual age, so the number aged 1, the number aged 2, the number aged 3….etc.

In relation to the second point my apologies as this is an error on my part and it should be numbered 2 and not 3, thank you for checking.’

Your request was received on 20 November 2023, with clarification received on 24 November 2023, and has been dealt with under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

A copy of the information is attached.

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 one 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.

Time Period

Calendar year 2022.

Organisation Data

The data is for items prescribed in England regardless of where they are dispensed in the community.

Data

This dataset is limited to the prescribing of products within BNF paragraphs Hypnotics (BNF 040101) and Nicotine dependence (BNF 041002) for patients aged 0 to 25.

The data is broken down by one year age bands.

Please note: Not all ages between 0 to 25 have data for the requested time period.

Items

Shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed.

Patient Age

Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing. Results have been restricted to only show results for patients aged 0 to 25 with results presented by one year age bands.

Please note: Not all patient’s age can be captured and therefore cannot be allocated to an age band.

The NHSBSA does not validate, verify or manually check the resulting information as part of the routine prescription processing.

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.