A copy of the information is attached The data sources were the NHSBSA ETP Database and the Information Services DALL Database. The time period covered was April 2017 to April 2018 dispensed prescriptions. 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. The data covers only valid Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) Release 2 claims received by the NHSBSA. EPS R2 claims which have not been sent to the NHSBSA or which have expired on the NHS Digital Spine and have arrived to the NHSBSA as "No Claims" are excluded from the data. The "Period" column shows the processing year and month that the EPS claims were assigned to when they were received by the NHSBSA. The "Dispenser Code" shows the identification code of the dispensing contractor or dispensing doctor practice which claimed for the prescription. The "Total Number of Claims" is a total of all electronic prescription forms claimed by the dispenser for that month. The "Number of Late Leeway Claims" is a subset of the "Total Number of Claims in Leeway Period" counting all those claims received by the NHSBSA between the 1st and 5th of the month subsequent to the one shown in the "Period" column but which were paid in the month shown in the "Period" column because the Dispense Notification had been received during the month shown in the "Period" column. The "Number of Normal Leeway Claims" is a subset of the "Total Number of Claims in Leeway Period" counting all those claims received by the NHSBSA on any day between the 1st and 5th of the month which is shown in the "Period" column where both the Dispense Notification and the Claim were received between the 1st and 5th of the month. The "leeway period" refers to a 5 day window of time between the 1st and 5th of each month. This period exists to ensure that if contractors send a large number of claims in at the very end of the month, sufficient time exists to process those claims and still allocate their payments against the month in which they were dispensed. Electronic claim messages don’t need to be sent all together at the end of the month, they can be sent in real time in real time, at the end of each day, in batches or weekly. They must be received by NHSBSA Prescription Services before midnight on the 5th of the month following that of dispensing (sending the dispense notification) to secure payment for that month’s submission. For example, if an item is dispensed in August and the electronic claim message is received on 5 September, payment will be made for August.  However, if an item is dispensed in August but the electronic claim message is not received until 6 September, payment will be made for September. Items dispensed at the beginning of a month for which the electronic claim message is sent on or before the 5th of that same month will not result in earlier payment.  For example, if an item is dispensed on 1 September the dispense notification must also be sent on 1 September.  However, even if the corresponding electronic claim message is sent to NHSBSA Prescription Services on or before 5 September, payment will be made for September and not for August. 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 ETP Database and the Information Services DALL Database, 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.