Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

Please be so kind as to advise the following Regarding PCN's issued by NHS Business Authority.

Year Number. issued Number cancelled Number Paid Number outstanding; 2021, 2022, 2023, up to end Sept 2024.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 30 October 2024.

We clarified this request with the following on 6 November 2024:

Therefore I would be grateful if you would confirm if you require the data for the Prescription Exemption Checking Service (PECS), Dental Exemption Checking Service (DECS) or both?

You responded on 6 November 2024 which we inferred you required the figures regarding to DECS.

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

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested. Please find the data attached to this email.

We issue all letters based on the information supplied by the pharmacy or dental practice.

The figure of ‘cancelled’ PCNs includes cases where we were able to confirm the patient has a valid exemption, or we were able to remove the PCN.

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-02347

Your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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: “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.