I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested.
Request
You asked us:
Please provide the most recent complete list of all NHS community pharmacy contractors in England, including the following data fields (as held by the NHSBSA):
• ODS code (organisation code)
• Contractor name / trading name
• Parent company or ownership indicator (where available)
• Address (including postcode)
• Contract type (e.g. community pharmacy, distance selling pharmacy)
If possible, please also include any identifier that distinguishes multiple pharmacy groups from independents (e.g. parent company flag, group code).
If the parent company / ownership flag is not available, please confirm which dataset(s) or fields would allow for cross-referencing contractors with multiples such as Boots, Lloyds, Well, Tesco, Rowlands, Superdrug, and other known chains.
The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 27 September 2025.
We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.
Our response
Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.
The information you requested is available on the NHSBSA website:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/contractor-details
This dataset provides ODS Code, contractor name and trading name, address and includes columns indicating if the contractor is a distance selling pharmacies (DSP), 100 hours or local pharmaceutical services (LPS) contractor.
It can also be filtered to include English Pharmacies only (DISPENSER_ACCOUNT_TYPE = English Pharmacy) and exclude Private Contractors and Out of Hours contractors (PRIVATE_CONTRACTOR and OUT_OF_HRS_DISP_CONTRACTOR = N).
While we do not have an ownership flag or indicator available, the dataset also includes a contractor type column which indicates if a pharmacy is a single contractor, part of a chain of more than 5 shops or linked to some wider pharmacy chains, such as Boots.
Additionally, NHS Digital maintains the edispensary dataset which may assist in establishing ownership of NHS community pharmacy contractors. You can access it here:
https://digital.nhs.uk/services/organisation-data-service/data-search-and-export/csv-downloads/gp-and-gp-practice-related-data
This dataset includes trading names that may be used to cross-reference contractors and identify affiliations with known pharmacy multiples such as Boots, Lloyds, Well, Tesco, Rowlands, and Superdrug, where this information is available.
Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21
![[Open Data]](/base/images/od_80x15_blue.png)