FOI-03811

Request   You asked us:   I am writing to formally request information on the annual quantity (kg) of 9 chemical substances in drugs prescribed in England since 1990, if any, for scientific research purposes.   The 9 target chemical substances are: Ibuprofen, Ivermectin, Ketoprofen, Erythromycin, Clarithromycin, Carbamazepine, Amoxicillin, Chloramphenicol, and Flubendazole.   Although data on the quantity of prescribed drugs are available on the NHS website (English Prescribing Dataset (EPD) with SNOMED Code), some drug items do not show the quantity of substances in the product, and the data is available only since 2000.   I did not find such data on the FOI Disclosure Log page. However, if the requested data is available somewhere on your website, please let me know.   The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 11 May 2026     We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.    Our response   Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.    The information you requested is publicly availablein the English Prescribing Dataset (EPD) with SNOMED Code and the Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) Monthly Administrative Data. Both datasets include the quantities of items prescribed.   Please note that we can only provide quantities in the unit of measure recorded in the dataset. We are not able to convert these quantities into kilograms.   In addition, the data we hold is only available from 2000 onwards..   The links below should help you access the datasets and explore the information you need:   https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/#home-page   https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/english-prescribing-dataset-epd-with-snomed-code   https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/prescription-cost-analysis-pca-monthly-data   Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full -  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21