Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Can I request the information previously supplied under FOI Request FOI-01897 but for the period February 2025 to the most recent month where this data is available?’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 30 April 2025.

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

Our 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.

Time Period

All prescribing from April 2015 to January 2025 was used to find prior prescribing, with first prescribing data in February 2025.

Organisation Data

The data is for prescriptions dispensed in the community in England.

Drugs and appliances

Limited to BNF Codes beginning with 2128, Anal Irrigation System.

Only for the first prescription issued to a patient who have never received a prescription for any of these items in any other time periods.

The NHSBSA does not hold data showing a patient’s first prescribing of a given drug. This has been calculated by excluding all patients with prescribing in BNF Codes beginning with 2128 in the Data Warehouse during the 'prior prescribing' period given above. Patients first prescribing has been found using the prescribed date recorded on a prescription. If this has not been captured during processing (usually on a paper prescription) then the end of the month the prescription was claimed to be dispensed in is used. For a further tie break the first prescription is chosen by internal alphanumeric coding for prescriber, then dispenser, then drug/appliance name. From this the first prescribing the prescriber, dispenser and drug are shown.

Please note that if a patient has received more than one prescription for the same presentation in the same period from the same practice and dispenser, each of these prescriptions would be included.

Identified Patients

Prescriptions are only included in the data if an NHS number was captured during processing so patients with prescribing prior to the 'first prescribing' period given above can be excluded.

For the whole period, 91.75% of items on prescriptions within the limits of the dataset had an identified patient. For the data for February 2025, 97.49% of items on prescriptions had an identified patient.

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.

Dummy PRACTICE_NAME

‘Dummy N. Ireland Practice’ and ‘Dummy Scottish Practice’ have been used for prescriptions where we are unable to identify the practice, but we are able to identify that it was a Scottish or Northern Irish prescription.

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.