A copy of the information is attached. NHSBSA 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 users. Information which is on ePACT2 is derived from products prescribed on NHS prescriptions and dispensed in the Community. The data retrieved from these prescriptions is processed to capture the Prescriber, drugs and drug costs before being summarised where applicable and then held on a database. The data provided is based on England Prescribing only. The data may include items prescribed in England but dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. The data excludes items prescribed in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Isle of Man but dispensed in England. The data excludes items dispensed in prisons, hospitals and private prescriptions but does include prison and prescriptions issued by provider organisations which are dispensed in the community. Information which is supplied by NHS England Areas regarding Contractor details is held on a database. The contractor details are provided to NHSBSA Prescription Services to produce the submission documents for contractors to send in their prescriptions each month. The data is then processed and used to make payments to contractors .The contractor details are also sent to external partners Organisation Data Service (ODS) and NHS Choices. The 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 8 digits represent the medicinal product, form, strength and the link to the generic equivalent product. Items shows the number of times a product appears on a prescription form not the quantity prescribed. Quantity normally shows the quantity of a product prescribed. However, where a product is packed in a 'special container'(see Drug Tariff Part II Clause 10) the pharmacist is not required to split the pack and may supply the number of containers or original packs which provide the quantity nearest to that prescribed. In some circumstances these items show quantity as the number of units supplied i.e. 1 or 2 even though a pack may contain 56 tablets. Net Ingredient cost (NIC) is the basic price of a drug as stated in Part II Clause 8 of the Drug Tariff but please note that where a price concession for items listed in Part VIIIA of the Drug Tariff has been agreed between the Department of Health and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee the NIC will reflect the concession price rather than the Drug Tariff price. The actual cost is the basic price of the drug less the National Average Discount Percentage (NADP) plus Payment for Consumables (previously known container allowance), Out of Pocket Expenses and Payment for Containers (10p for splitting packs). Please note ePACT2 uses the same months dispensed prescriptions to calculate the NADP and applies that to the actual cost for that same month. Annex A Section 40 - Personal information (1) Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject. (2) Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if - a. it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1), and b. either the first or the second condition below is satisfied. (3) The first condition is - a. in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the definition of "data" in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene - i. any of the data protection principles, or ii. section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause damage or distress), and b. in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the data protection principles if the exemptions in section 33A(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (which relate to manual data held by public authorities) were disregarded. (4) The second condition is that by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section 7(1)(c) of that Act (data subject's right of access to personal data). (5) The duty to confirm or deny - a. does not arise in relation to information which is (or if it were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of subsection (1), and b. does not arise in relation to other information if or to the extent that either - i. the giving to a member of the public of the confirmation or denial that would have to be given to comply with section 1(1)(a) would (apart from this Act) contravene any of the data protection principles or section 10 of the Data Protection Act 1998 or would do so if the exemptions in section 33A(1) of that Act were disregarded, or ii. by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Data Protection Act 1998 the information is exempt from section 7(1)(a) of that Act (data subject's right to be informed whether personal data being processed). (6) In determining for the purposes of this section whether anything done before 24th October 2007 would contravene any of the data protection principles, the exemptions in Part III of Schedule 8 to the Data Protection Act 1998 shall be disregarded. (7) In this section - "the data protection principles" means the principles set out in Part I of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 1998, as read subject to Part II of that Schedule and section 27(1) of that Act; "data subject" has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act; "personal data" has the same meaning as in section 1(1) of that Act. Data Protection Act 1998 Schedule 1 First Principle (1) Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless- (a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and (b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.