News

Update on Dispensing Data Format – Temporary Support Period
5 August 2025

To support users in transitioning to the new formatting standards introduced under ODP Best Practice and Statistical guidelines, we will be providing the April, May, and June 2025...
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Dispensing datasets now available on the Open Data Portal 
29 July 2025

Three dispensing datasets have now migrated onto the Open Data Portal (ODP):   Dispensing Doctors and Personally Administered (PADM) report  Practice Prescribing Dispensing...
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Coming soon: Urgent Dental Appointments dataset
23 July 2025

We are pausing the planned release of monthly urgent dental treatment data. This decision has been made to allow further review and reflection on the methodology, including an assessment...
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New Datasets Now Available: Vaccine Damage Payments Scheme
9 July 2025

Data in relation to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) has been published on our Open Data Portal.  The VDPS provides a one-off, tax-free payment, currently of £120,000....
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Finalised Secondary Care Medicines Dataset (SCMD) for 2024/25 Financial Year — now available
8 July 2025

What’s new in this release The SCMD provides a provisional view of stock activity across NHS Trust sites. Each July, an annual finalised release is published for the preceding...
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Coming soon – BNF codes dataset

11 March 2025

In the coming weeks, the NHS Business Services Authority will migrate the British National Formulary (BNF) codes dataset from the Information Services Portal (ISP) to the Open Data Portal (ODP).

Why is it migrating?

The ISP will be decommissioned as part of an ongoing drive to improve services and better meet the needs of users, in line with our 2024-2029 strategy. Decommissioning can only occur if all active datasets and reports hosted on the ISP, such as the BNF codes dataset, are migrated elsewhere.

What will you see?

Users navigating to the Community Prescribing and Dispensing Theme on the ODP will see three new datasets providing information on BNF code data:

  • a ‘current year’ dataset hosting a monthly view of the BNF from January to December
  • a ‘historic’ dataset showing previous year-end data
  • a dedicated ‘monthly changes’ supporting dataset showing monthly changes for the ‘current calendar year’

    • You will also be able to:

  • filter BNF code data before downloading the dataset, allowing you to extract the data that you need
  • access the data more efficiently via the application programming interface (API), enabling faster and easier integration

    • What the migration means for you

  • improved user experience
  • enhanced functionality
  • a centralised point of access to our open datasets

    • Further information

    If you have any queries in advance of the dataset migration, please contact our Open Data team.

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