Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

This request relates to figures from the latest financial year for which they are available.

In the event that any part/s of this request be exempt from the FOIA, please could the other parts still be answered.

If answering item 3 would exceed the reasonable time limit, please could this request be considered with item 3 omitted.

The figures sought are:

1. The total number of prescriptions issued where—

a) recipients had a prepayment certificate,

b) recipients were exempt from paying the charge for any other reason, and

c) recipients were not exempt from paying the charge.

1. The total income to NHS England from—

a) prescription charges, and

b) prescription prepayment certificates.

1. The operational cost, approximate if necessary, of the NHS department/s or part/s thereof with responsibility for—

a) processing prescription charges,

b) processing prescription prepayment certificates, and

c) checking, investigating or following up on people falsely claiming prescription charge exemptions.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on Monday 7 April 2025.

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

Our response

Question 1

We are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, in accordance with Section 21 of the FOIA. The information you requested is available on our website: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/statistical-collections/prescription-cost-analysis-england/prescription-cost-analysis-england-202324. You can also request a paper copy of this information by emailing us at: foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk

To view the Section 21 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Question 2

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

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

NHS Prescription Services processes 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.

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.

• items dispensed as part of a Pharmacy First consultation or service.

Data Source

The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse.

Dispensing Doctor Charges Collected sourced from prescription data. This claim is not made by us, but we provide payment information for dispensing doctors to Primary Care Organisation payment sites so that they can make claims and payments to dispensing doctors. Pharmacy and appliance contractor charges collected, pre-payment certificates, FP 57 refunds, fraud pharmacy recovery charges and PPC HRT values are taken from NHSBSA remuneration reports.

Time Period

Data limited to 2023/24 financial year (last complete financial year).

Organisation Data

The data provided is limited to England.

Question 3a

This is a quote to reflect the costings for the period April 2024 to March 2025:

The cost of keying the charge status stream is around £8,030 per year. Manual checks take place before scanning to ensure that paper forms have been sorted correctly into chargeable and exempt groups. The cost of this task is around £40,740 per year. This means that the total cost is £48,770. The majority of administrative tasks associated with prescription charges are automated, therefore manual resource is at a minimum.

Question 3b

Processing prescription prepayment certificates: £9.3 million.

Question 3c

Checking, investigating, or following up on people falsely claiming prescription charge exemptions: £14.8 million.

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-02731

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: “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.