Request

Is it possible please to request a spreadsheet showing the number of prescription items that were prescribed or dispensed (ideally dispensed/claimed) in the community in England, by the first part of the patient postcode? By first part of the postcode I mean the outward code, i.e. the part of the postcode which is before the space separator. If so, could this please be done with a separate row per postcode per month, for the months for which data is available in 2024.

On the 3 March 2025 you clarified the following:

Yes can I please continue with the FOI request for count of prescription items per month by outwards patient postcode, rather than the existing English prescribing dataset data releases.

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.

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.

Exclusions

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

Monthly data from January 2024 to December 2024 inclusive.

Prescribing

The data provided is for prescriptions dispensed in England, regardless of where prescribed.

Items

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

Postcode

Postcode has been taken as the patient's home postcode captured during processing for payment. If no postcode was captured during processing then we have used the postcode held by NHSBSA for the patient from the prescription month. These postcodes have come from the NHS Personal Demographics Service (PDS).

Only recorded postcodes which are a valid English postcode have been used. If the postcode recorded was not a valid English postcode or was not known (from the prescription or PDS) then the postcode has been listed as 'UNKNOWN'

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 Information Services Data Warehouse, NHSBSA Copyright 2025” 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.