Response

Question 1

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

We are not able to advise regarding the cost to companies that produce contraceptive pills as we do not hold this data. 

Question 2 and 3

Under Section 21 of the Act, 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 available as follows:

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/pharmacies-gp-practices-and-appliance-contractors/drug-tariff 

Part VIIIA of the Drug Tariff lists the re-imbursement price as specified by Part II clause 8 basic price.This clause states that the basic price for drugs appliances and chemical reagents ordered by name or synonym of that name included in Part VIII and Part IX shall be the price listed in the Drug Tariff. The products listed in Part VIIIA of the Drug Tariff cover 80% of all generic prescribing and it includes the most popular generic items. The price shown in the Drug Tariff is used to reimburse generically written prescriptions regardless of the supplier used.

We are not able to advise regarding the whole NHS, we hold information on prescriptions which have been dispensed in the community in England. 

Prescribing Numbers and Cost Analysis for England

The information you requested is available from the “PCA Monthly Drug Data” at the following web link:

http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/PrescriptionServices/3494.aspx 

You will need to view all the rows containing product of interest to you by searching (press “Ctrl” and “F” keys together) Column D.  You can then calculate the totals you require from this information.

Contraceptives have their own BNF Section, which you can filter on, when using spread sheet software. Each drug shows the Net Ingredient Cost (NIC), which allows you to view the amount spent on those drugs within that month, in England only.

Costs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

I am writing to advise you that following a search of our paper and electronic records,
I have established that the information you requested for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. We only hold information for England.  For details of other home countries please use the following contacts.

Information for Scotland can be obtained by contacting:

Customer Service Desk
NHS National Services Scotland
Gyle Square
1 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
EH12 9EB

Tel: 0131 275 6665
Email: NSS.Communications@nhs.net 
Website: www.isdscotland.org 
Web form http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/corporate/foi_request_form.php  
FOISA Disclosure log http://www.nhsnss.org/pages/publications/foi_disclosures.php  

Information for Wales can be obtained by contacting:

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership
Freedom of Information Requests
NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership,
4-5 Charnwood Court,
Heol Billingsley,
Parc Nantgarw,
Cardiff
CF15 7QZ
E-mail: shared.services@wales.nhs.uk  

Information for Northern Ireland can be obtained by contacting:

Corporate Services Department
HSC Business Services Organisation
2 Franklin Street
Belfast
BT2 8DQ
Tel:  028 9032 4431
Website: http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/  
Email Foi.bso@hscni.net 
FOI Disclosure log http://www.hscbusiness.hscni.net/information/2107.htm