Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

‘Please could you provide me with the following information under the FOI act:

- The number of late payment claims for completed Pharmacy First consultations made by community pharmacy contractors since June 1st 2025.

- Of these late claims, the number that were rejected/not paid.

- The total value of the rejected/unpaid claims - that is, how many Great British Pounds' worth of Pharmacy First payments were not paid to contractors over the specified period. For example, if two Pharmacy First claims of £500 each were rejected in June, the total value for that month would be £1000.

- Please present the above information broken down by month. (Feel free to use the Excel spreadsheet I have made, and that I will send on once I receive confirmation of my request.)’

‘I'm getting in touch following my recent request FOI-03698 to share an Excel spreadsheet that may be helpful for presenting the information.’

[On 2 April 2026 you clarified your request as follows]

‘To clarify, my request concerns the Pharmacy First clinical pathway consultations only. And regarding the value of unpaid claims, it would be great if you could instead provide an estimate of the consultation fees which would have been paid.’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 24 March 2026, with clarification received on 2 April 2026.

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

Our response

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by the NHSBSA.

Advice and assistance

The Drug Tariff (NHSBSA Part VIC) sets out the requirements for submitting NHS Pharmacy First claims, including the permitted grace period. Pharmacy First Clinical Pathway submissions must be made within the required window – either by the 5th of the month (or the 6th when a bank holiday applies) and no later than the final day of the month following the date of activity. All contractor submissions were received within these required timescales. As a result, there were no late submissions, and therefore no late submission data is available for disclosure.

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 2026”. 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.