Request

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act, can you please provide the following:

1. The number of pharmacy closures in the last three years (Between April 6 - April 5 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24)

Can this be broken down by year and by geographical region? (Where possible, can the regions be broken down further - perhaps by combined authorities or counties?)

For example,

North West: Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire

On the 7 October 2024 you clarified the following:

Can you please proceed with the request for the number of pharmacy closures for the years requested?

Response

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

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

The numbers provided are the number of pharmacy accounts which have closed between 6 April and 5 April the following year. The closure of a pharmacy account does not always mean that there is no longer a pharmacy operating from those premises; it may, for example, be caused by a change of management or ownership.

For more information on the overall number of pharmacies, taking account of those opening and closing, please see the data published data showing the overall number of pharmacies in England.

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/pharmacy-openings-and-closures

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

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Time Period

6 April 2021 to 5 April 2024 inclusive

Organisation Data

The data provided is for community pharmacy accounts for the dispensing of NHS prescriptions in England. There are several accounts which existed for less than a month and never submitted any prescriptions for payment and these are not included.

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

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: “Data Warehouse, 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.