Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

In 2023 the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) provided data on the number of private prescriptions of unlicensed cannabis medicines prescribed between November 2018 to July 2022, showing that 89,239 unlicensed cannabis products had been prescribed privately in this time period. The data was provided via a written ministerial question and is available online here: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2023-01-06.117459.h&s=cannabis

1. Please provide the total number of private prescriptions of unlicensed cannabis medicines prescribed in 2023.

2. Please provide the total number of private prescriptions of unlicensed cannabis medicines prescribed in 2024.

3. Please provide the number of private prescriptions of unlicensed cannabis medicines prescribed in 2023 broken down by the following medical conditions they were prescribed for: anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, mood disorders and ADHD.

4. Please provide the number of private prescriptions of unlicensed cannabis medicines prescribed in 2024 broken down by the following medical conditions they were prescribed for: anxiety, depression, PTSD, OCD, mood disorders and ADHD.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 25 November 2025.

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

Our response

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

Please read the notes to ensure your 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 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.

Data Source
When prescriptions are processed by our data capture, prescriptions sometimes contain prescribing of medicines that were not populated on our drug database at the time. This type of order will be captured as an ‘unspecified drug.’ Data for prescribing of unlicensed cannabis-based medicines has been taken from data captured as unspecified prescribing. Unlicensed cannabis-based medicines are identified by an additional review process which occurs after the prescriptions have been processed. The items identified by this review are reported against the date that the prescription was written and not necessarily when they were submitted. Therefore, these figures may be subject to change if the prescription is submitted to us in a later month.

This dataset
The dataset shows total items prescribed for private unlicensed cannabis-based products.

Time Period
The time period covers the calendar years 2023 and 2024.

Please note the figures (especially the more recent data) are subject to change as new data is processed – see Data Source.

Organisation Data
Private unlicensed data is based on items dispensed in the community in England.

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

Question 3 and Question 4 

We do not capture the clinical reason why a drug has been prescribed. This means that we are unable to provide you with data on the number of private prescriptions of unlicenced cannabis broken down by medical condition. Please note that medication may also be prescribed for reasons outside of its primary use.

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 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.