Data for February 2018 I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds information meeting the description specified in this part of your request. However, under section 14(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is not obliged to comply with this part of your request as it has already provided this information to you. Section 14(2) – Repeat Requests Where a public authority has previously complied with a request for Information which was made by any person, it is not obliged to comply with a subsequently identical or similar request from that person unless a reasonable interval has elapsed between compliance with the previous request and the making of the current request The information was provided to you in response to your previous request under reference 7568. Data for March 2018 – November 2018 Fewer than 5 Items Please be aware that I have decided not to release the dispenser details where the total number of items falls below five. This is because patients could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available. The information would allow for a mosaic effect to take place. For example, if someone was in possession of information on prescribing locations (routinely published) of any particular drug, and the month it was dispensed, disclosure of information on where that drug was dispensed would then allow someone to then pin point the place that drug was both prescribed and dispensed, making identification of a patient more likely. Existence of other information such as hospital prescribing data again increases the mosaic effect and the likelihood of identification. This information therefore 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 patients 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. Annex A below sets out this exemption in full. 5 Items or More 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. Data in ePACT2 is sourced from the NHSBSA Information Services Data Warehouse and is derived from products prescribed on NHS prescriptions and dispensed in the Community. The data captured from prescription processing is used to calculate reimbursement and remuneration and includes prescription items which were prescribed in England and dispensed in the community in England as well as items prescribed in England and dispensed in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and Alderney. 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. The data provided is limited to items dispensed by English pharmacy and appliance contractors only. The data is limited to prescription items for BNF presentations under the BNF chemical substance Stiripentol (0408010AG). The time period provided is from March 2018 to November 2018 prescriptions. 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. 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). 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. 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: “ePACT2, NHSBSA Copyright 2019” 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.