Question 1 and 3

PECS PCNs Issued Prior to September 2014

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records,
I have established that the information you requested before September 2014 is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority.

The Prescription Exemption Checking Service (PECS) is delivered by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) as commissioned by NHS England.  NHSBSA assumed the responsibility for this service from 17 September 2014. Prior to this date the checking of exemption status was the responsibility of PCTs/NHS England. The NHSBSA does not therefore hold any figures for the numbers of penalty charges issued prior to September 2014.

However it is possible that NHS England may hold some or all of the information you require. 

NHS England’s contact details are as follows:

NHS England
PO Box 16738
Redditch
B97 9PT
Telephone 0300 311 22 33
Email: england.contactus@nhs.net 
Web http://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/foi/

Dental PCNs for 2014/15 to 2016/17 and PECS PCNs from September 2014 to 2016/17

A copy of the information is attached. The information is separated into Prescription Exemption Checking Service (PECS) and Dental Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). Please accept my apologies for the delay in this response, and for the initial information being incorrect. Please disregard the information previously supplied and treat this as the final and correct information.

Question 2 - Challenges

Due to the way the information is recorded, it is not possible to provide figures on the exact number of PCNs which were challenged, as PCNs can be challenged informally without this being recorded. Therefore we have provided the figures for PCNs where exemptions were confirmed i.e. the patient contacted the service and was determined to have had a valid exemption in place.

The financial year contains the number of PCNs issued within the financial year, where the month of issue is two months after the prescription reimbursement period.

GP Practices are managed by CCGs, so the information is broken down by CCG as per your request. The CCG is assigned based upon the postcode of the patient. Cases where a CCG cannot be identified are either because the patient does not live in England or the postcode was invalid/unknown.

Dental Practices are managed by NHS England Area Teams, so this is how the information for Dental PCNs is broken down.

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:
“Loss Recovery Services, NHSBSA Copyright 2018” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ 

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.