Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

Time period requested: Mar-May 2024 and Mar-May 2025

The previous FOI was FOI 01393

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 17 November 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 and notes explaining it is attached.

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

NHSBSA Prescription Services process prescriptions and information is then used to make payments to pharmacists and appliance contractors (in England) for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings. This involves processing approximately 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 users.

Data Source:
NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse

Time Period:
Data covers prescribing between March 2024 to May 2024 and March 2025 and May 2025 inclusive.

Contents:
This release contains information on the number of unique patients prescribed one or more items of an appliance from the BNF sections listed below, or the list or two-piece ostomy systems as supplied by the requestor, in ICBs and sub-ICB locations (SICBLs) in England within the time period set out above.

Prescribing Organisation:
Data shown for prescribing in ICBs and SICBLs in England, in all settings, where dispensed in the community. The data is presented at ICB and SICBL level separately, with unique patient counts calculated at each level. Non-SICBL prescribing (e.g. in secondary care settings were dispensed in the community) is not included.

Dispensing Organisation: No restrictions have been placed on dispensing location.

Appliances:
Data is shown for prescribing of appliances in the following BNF sections:

2335 - Colostomy Bags
2360 - Ileostomy Bags
2394 - Two Piece Ostomy Systems (selected presentations only).
2396 - Urostomy Bags

A full list of those presentations included in the analysis has been included alongside this release.

Patient Data:
Patients who could not be identified by means of a valid NHS number on the prescription form have been excluded. In the context of this analysis (time period, organisation level and included appliances), 98.82% of items can be attributed to an identifiable patient. The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any other level than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients.

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.

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.