Volume and cost of prescribing charts

The datasets on this page will no longer receive updates

Go to our Open Data Portal (ODP) to view data we release to the public.

These charts are updated each month and show up to five years' data.

They show the:

number and cost of items
number of items declared by pharmacy contractors

Number of items declared by pharmacy contractors in England

At the end of each month, pharmacy contractors submit the prescriptions they have dispensed during the month to NHS Prescription Services. We then calculate their reimbursement and remuneration.

They include a completed submission document with their prescriptions, declaring how many prescription items are included in their account that month. Information is available in advance of the account being processed and is based on pharmacy declarations.

When the prescriptions have been processed, the charts are updated in the following month to reflect the actual figures.

Chart showing the number of items declared each month (Excel: 13KB)

Table showing the number of items declared each month

Month	2021/2022	2022/2023	2023/2024	2024/2025	2025/2026
April	86,039,828	87,723,122	86,623,458	97,314,789	97,584,959
May	82,319,717	91,914,243	92,871,109	98,764,151	100,220,804
June	88,474,059	88,945,777	94,908,635	92,957,111	97,418,796
July	88,809,048	89,113,439	91,970,984	100,826,378	103,745,209
August	84,100,113	91,095,263	94,074,332	96,618,921	95,009,735
September	88,426,188	90,235,787	92,269,977	94,395,332	100,207,659
October	86,636,274	89,707,338	93,957,681	100,590,424	103,188,153
November	89,157,014	91,282,887	95,558,030	96,618,921	95,328,148
December	93,053,294	94,154,300	94,875,266	99,635,953	105,385,657
January	86,681,575	92,677,440	97,883,393	101,533,911	101,214,679
February	82,313,502	85,633,671	92,255,972	91,114,132	93,236,867
March	93,411,630	97,216,400	94,163,797	96,612,293	Awaiting data

Number and cost of items prescribed on NHS prescriptions in England

At the end of each month, we transfer the information captured from prescriptions to our information systems. ePACT2 provides information about prescribing on NHS prescriptions in England.

The data includes all NHS prescribing which has been dispensed in the community, except items prescribed by dentists. Since April 2015, items prescribed by hospitals on FP10HP forms have been included in this data.

Chart showing ePACT2 data for the number of items prescribed on NHS prescriptions (Excel:14 KB)

Table showing ePACT2 data for the number of items prescribed on NHS prescriptions

Month	2021/2022	2022/2023	2023/2024	2024/2025	2025/2026
April	92,590,773	93,097,152	92,826,339	103,531,326	103,624,833
May	88,642,922	97,460,958	99,623,254	105,831,661	107,224,193
June	95,303,057	95,116,444	101,809,504	99,133,434	104,082,405
July	95,069,141	94,904,512	98,585,101	107,624,981	110,617,468
August	90,426,393	96,853,710	100,503,674	102,968,430	101,306,130
September	96,839,016	97,246,920	100,983,411	100,886,236	107,009,208
October	95,792,669	100,261,365	104,667,380	112,539,905	115,451,160
November	97,570,842	100,475,895	103,094,760	104,586,042	103,394,017
December	100,427,633	101,531,396	101,854,420	106,982,547	113,092,789
January	93,914,851	98,817,033	104,981,801	109,086,077	108,775,579
February	87,854,197	91,524,360	98,476,666	97,310,578	Awaiting data
March	93,693,883	103,987,262	100,183,306	103,376,689	Awaiting data

Chart showing ePACT2 data for the net ingredient cost of items prescribed on NHS prescriptions (Excel: 15 KB)

Table showing ePACT2 data for the net ingredient cost of items prescribed on NHS prescriptions

Month	2021/2022	2022/2023	2023/2024	2024/2025	2025/2026
April	798,593,992	768,768,237	837,503,197	897,249,656	891,215,159
May	766,482,169	815,133,091	907,900,269	920,192,464	940,523,631
June	825,543,807	802,974,093	930,800,246	873,750,223	921,482,029
July	803,163,363	818,862,473	900,618,613	968,274,204	976,118,625
August	760,799,615	839,630,217	911,892,449	928,430,452	888,076,419
September	825,260,922	861,258,719	931,888,905	894,182,636	977,688,000
October	805,834,994	903,145,582	930,008,082	1,003,176,458	1,060,660,878
November	819,529,400	898,699,145	908,008,082	915,135,039	928,050,075
December	848,090,569	920,973,413	902,190,269	932,437,092	998,943,899
January	773,378,379	905,398,943	910,708,351	938,945,272	956,861,862
February	725,366,054	829,398,081	857,270,578	838,276,906	Awaiting data
March	829,905,218	945,592,081	871,184,233	895,146,755	Awaiting data