FOI-03971

##Request ‘FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST For the 2025 calendar year please state how many prescriptions were issued for drugs of BNF 4.1.1 - hypnotics? Please break these prescriptions down into age groups for the people they were prescribed to in the following age brackets (i) 0-9, (ii) 10-19, (iii) 20-29, (iv) 30-39, (v) 40-49, (vi) 50-59, (vii) 60-69, (viii) 70-79, (ix) 80-89 and (x) 90 and above. In relation to the drugs prescribed in 2025 could you please state how many prescriptions, and the cost was for each of the chemicals within section 4.1.1.? In relation to the 2025 calendar year please state for each CCG (I appreciate that these are old administrative units now but I would still like the figures on the CCG basis rather than the ICB): (i) how many prescriptions under 4.1.1 were made, (ii) the cost of these prescriptions, (iii) the total number of patients in that CCG that were provided with a prescription for this type of drug at any time during the year, and (iv) the total number of patients in this CCG.’ The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 17 July 2026. We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. ##Our response I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested and a copy of the information is attached. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. __NHSBSA__ NHS Prescription Services process prescriptions for pharmacy contractors, appliance contractors, dispensing doctors and for personal administration. 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 for personal administration. This involves processing over 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 and Social Care (DHSC) users. __Data source – ePACT2__ Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on prescriptions and dispensed in the community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration. It includes: * items prescribed in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Guernsey/Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man which have been dispensed in the community in England * items prescribed in England that have been dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Guernsey/Alderney, Jersey, and Isle of Man. For this dataset, data has been provided for prescriptions dispensed by English pharmacy contractors and dispensing doctors only. Refer to 'Organisation Data' for more information. 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. __Time period__ Data has been aggregated and provided by calendar year from January 2025 to December 2025. The Sub-Integrated Care Board Location (SICBL) list size data is based on data held as of December 2025. __Dataset__ This data is provided in four parts; FOI_03971_Q1- the number of prescription items prescribed within the BNF Paragraph of Hypnotics and dispensed in the community, aggregated by the age of the patient receiving them. FOI_03971_Q2- The number of prescription items prescribed, and associated Net Ingredient Cost, for each BNF Chemical Substance within the Hypnotics paragraph. FOI_03971_Q3_P1- The number of prescriptions, net ingredient cost and unique identified patient count, for Hypnotics items prescribed to patients within each SICBL. Please note that as the data for this part of the FOI is based on prescribing associated to GP practices linked to specific SICBLs, the overall item count will be lower than the data provided for Questions 1 and 2. FOI_03971_Q3_P2- The recorded Patient List Size of patients registered to GP practices located within each SICBL as of December 2025. Please note that this is the closest equivalent data we have available to answer the question asked. __Organisation data__ The data provided is for prescriptions prescribed in England and dispensed anywhere in the UK within a community setting. For Question 3 of this request, aggregation at SICBL level has been provided as the closest available equivalent to the previous CCG organisational structure. Information relating to the previous CCG codes and their SICBL equivalent can be located here- https://www.sbs.nhs.uk/supplier-information/ccg-icb-list/. Please note that SICBL names within the data are consistent with the naming conventions following the Integrated Care Board restructure in April 2026. The SICBL codes are accurate as of the 2025 financial year. __BNF classification__ The British National Formulary (BNF) code is a 15-digit code in which the first seven digits are allocated according to the categories in the BNF and the last eight digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. NHS Prescription Services has created pseudo BNF chapters, which are not published, for items not included in BNF chapters 1 to 15. The majority of such items are dressings and appliances which NHS Prescription Services has classified into four pseudo BNF chapters (20 to 23). __Age__ Patient ages are based on the age as captured from the prescription image and relates to the patient's age at the time of prescribing/dispensing. Results are presented by age band (0-9, 10-19 etc). Please note it is possible that a single patient may be included in the results for more than one age band where a patient has received prescribing at different ages during a financial year. The figures for the number of identifiable patients should not be combined and reported at any level other than provided as this may result in the double-counting of patients. For example, a single patient could appear in the results for multiple financial years or age bands. __Patient identification__ Patient identifiable figures that have been reported are based on the information captured during the prescription processing activities. Patient details cannot be captured from every prescription form. For Question 3 within this dataset, patient information (NHS number) was available for 99.58% of prescription items. __Items__ Items show the number of times a product appears on a prescription form, not the quantity prescribed. __Net Ingredient Cost (NIC)__ Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff. Please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIII of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Community Pharmacy England, the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price. __Data Queries__ Please contact [email protected] 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 [email protected] . 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.