Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

For the month of October 2023 would it be possible to find out for items prescribed in England and dispensed in England:

1) The total gross and nett ingredient cost for all items

2) The gross and nett ingredient cost for prescription items with a quantity of 7

3) The gross and nett ingredient cost for prescription items with a quantity of 14

4) The number of items with a quantity of 28 and gross and nett ingredient cost for prescription items with a quantity of 28

5) The number of items with a quantity of 56 and gross and nett ingredient cost for prescription items with a quantity of 56

6) The number of items with a quantity of 84 and gross and nett ingredient cost for prescription items with a quantity of 84

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 27 June 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

Gross Cost

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested on gross cost is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. We only hold information on the net cost, which is explained further below.

Remaining Information

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information and notes explaining it is attached.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Total Items and Net Ingredient cost (NIC), prescribed and dispensed in England, in October 2023 (Part 1)

NIC of prescription items with a Quantity of 7, 14, 28, 56 and 84, prescribed and dispensed in England, in October 2023 (Part 2)

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.

Time Period:

October 2023

Organisation Data:

The data is limited to net ingredient cost of prescriptions prescribed and dispensed in England.

The data includes many drug formulations aggregated together, for example:

• tablets

• capsules

• sachets

• pre-filled disposable injections

• patches

• doses (inhalers)

• mls (solutions)

Items:

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

Within part 2 of the data, items are grouped by quantities of 7, 14, 28, 56 and 84 units of different formulations.

The data excludes quantities of 7,14,28,56 and 84, that are packaged as special containers that is not equal to, or multiples of 7,14,28,56 and 84. For example prescribed 7, packaged as 10 special container - the quantity captured is 10.

Net Ingredient Cost (£):

Net Ingredient cost is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Community Pharmacy England the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02047

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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.

Reusing the data and copyright

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 2024” 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.