Question 2 – Location Data

Unlicensed Prescribing

Please be aware that for unlicensed prescribing, I have decided not to release the details of locations. This is because the patients could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available, such as media coverage about cannabis prescribing and the small number of people receiving these drugs.

This information 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. 

Breach of Patient confidentiality

Please note that the identification of patients is also a breach of the common law duty of
confidence. A patient who has been identified could make a claim against the NHSBSA or
yourself for the disclosure of the confidential information.
The information requested is therefore being withheld as it falls under the exemption in
section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act. The
attached annex B below sets out this exemption in full.

Licensed Prescribing

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 from our website at:

https://apps.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/infosystems/welcome

You can log in as a Guest by inputting the code in the image. Then follow the route to the data outlined below:

+Data>Prescribing Data>Detailed Prescribing Information

Guidance on how to use these reports is available at

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-services-portal-isp/isp-user-guidance 

Please note due to the large size of the National level files some users may experience difficulty in accessing the information in a standard Excel or CSV format.  

Instructions on accessing the full data set are also available at the above link.

This provides location data for licensed cannabis medicines.

Question 3 – Clinical Condition

I have established that the information you requested on patient condition is not held by the NHS Business Services Authority. No data is captured relating to the clinical indication a prescription is intended for. Some of these products can be used for a variety of clinical indications and therefore the drugs prescribed may have been prescribed for a different condition.

Question 1 – Overall Numbers Prescribed

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 from web link:

https://apps.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/FOI/foiRequestDetail.do?bo_id=8823 

This provides data for licensed and unlicensed cannabis based medicines.