FOI-03970

##Request You asked us: I have realised that I made an error in my original request, as I did not specify that I also require the information to be disaggregated by year and month. Could I please request a revision of my FOI request (FOI-03843) to include this level of disaggregation, if possible? The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 15 July 2026. We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. ##Our response I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds the information you have requested. Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data. ##Fewer Than 5 patients Please be aware that I have decided not to release the exact number of patients, where the number is fewer than 5. This is because the individuals could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available. This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3A (a) of the Freedom of Information Act. This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as: a) it is not fair to disclose patient personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress. b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the patients. Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40 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 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 users. ##Data Source The data source was the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse. ##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. * items supplied as part of a Pharmacy First consultation or service. ##Time Period Answers are based on January 2022 to March 2026 processing data ##Drugs Limited to the following BNF sections: * 0501 - Antibacterial drugs Organisation Data Only items that were prescribed in a GP practice in England are included ##Age Only patients whose age was recorded as 20 years or younger have been included. NHSBSA stores information on the age of the recipient of each prescription as it was read by computer from images of paper prescriptions or as attached to message sent through the electronic prescription system. NHSBSA data warehouse applies a calculated age logic shown that checks for any inconsistent information across the available sources and may result in ages being reported as missing or unknown. This is explained in more detail here: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/2018-02/180115%20Age%20Logic%20Summary%20Flow%20Chart%20-%20Revised%20Layout.pdf Additional checks have been carried out to assess the capture rate and accuracy of the stored patient information from scanned prescriptions. The latest results for 2020 showed that for both paper and electronic prescriptions patient age was captured from 94.88% of prescription forms and the accuracy of scanned age data was 99.95%. There were 0.66% of all antibiotic items in the time period where the age was not captured and were therefore excluded from this analysis. This request is split into 51 data files: FOI03970_2022010.csv - 189,855 rows of data FOI03970_2022020.csv - 189,085 rows of data FOI03970_2022030.csv - 213,777 rows of data FOI03970_2022040.csv - 190,145 rows of data FOI03970_2022050.csv - 202,529 rows of data FOI03970_2022060.csv - 201,461 rows of data FOI03970_2022070.csv - 205,143 rows of data FOI03970_2022080.csv - 184,238 rows of data FOI03970_2022090.csv - 193,226 rows of data FOI03970_2022100.csv - 211,315 rows of data FOI03970_2022110.csv - 236,359 rows of data FOI03970_2022120.csv - 290,777 rows of data FOI03970_2023010.csv - 239,235 rows of data FOI03970_2023020.csv - 226,241 rows of data FOI03970_2023030.csv - 235,816 rows of data FOI03970_2023040.csv - 194,181 rows of data FOI03970_2023050.csv - 203,190 rows of data FOI03970_2023060.csv - 199,710 rows of data FOI03970_2023070.csv - 194,551 rows of data FOI03970_2023080.csv - 176,905 rows of data FOI03970_2023090.csv - 189,404 rows of data FOI03970_2023100.csv - 209,957 rows of data FOI03970_2023110.csv - 223,164 rows of data FOI03970_2023120.csv - 221,690 rows of data FOI03970_2024010.csv - 228,965 rows of data FOI03970_2024020.csv - 224,386 rows of data FOI03970_2024030.csv - 229,488 rows of data FOI03970_2024040.csv - 215,228 rows of data FOI03970_2024050.csv - 212,669 rows of data FOI03970_2024060.csv - 196,847 rows of data FOI03970_2024070.csv - 196,572 rows of data FOI03970_2024080.csv - 166,060 rows of data FOI03970_2024090.csv - 181,276 rows of data FOI03970_2024100.csv - 199,545 rows of data FOI03970_2024110.csv - 204,722 rows of data FOI03970_2024120.csv - 208,622 rows of data FOI03970_2025010.csv - 202,795 rows of data FOI03970_2025020.csv - 194,519 rows of data FOI03970_2025030.csv - 197,460 rows of data FOI03970_2025040.csv - 176,143 rows of data FOI03970_2025050.csv - 173,286 rows of data FOI03970_2025060.csv - 171,266 rows of data FOI03970_2025070.csv - 173,368 rows of data FOI03970_2025080.csv - 147,222 rows of data FOI03970_2025090.csv - 175,988 rows of data FOI03970_2025100.csv - 194,015 rows of data FOI03970_2025110.csv - 196,606 rows of data FOI03970_2025120.csv - 207,167 rows of data FOI03970_2026010.csv - 194,327 rows of data FOI03970_2026020.csv - 189,816 rows of data FOI03970_2026030.csv - 201,854 rows of data ##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: “Data Warehouse, 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.