The NPA has not differentiated between within and external to the NHS as we are not clear about the divide between the two categories.

The NPA is concerned that release of practice level data could release commercially sensitive data about a neighbouring pharmacy(ies). The NPA appreciates that the consultation document recognises that “drug prescription information…. can be considered as personal data” and that “prescribing data is confidential by virtue of the way it is collected”.

The ‘Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007’ section 39,Confidentiality of personal information paragraph 3 states that information identifies a particular person (including a body corporate) if the identity of that person can be deduced from the information or can be deduced from the information taken together with any other published information.

If prescribing data is released at practice level then not only could surgeries be identified but in the many instances where a single pharmacy is close to a surgery individual pharmacies could be identified and if, as is frequently the case, that pharmacy dispenses the majority of prescriptions written by that surgery the business turnover of that pharmacy can be calculated. This information could be used by other companies wishing to:

• Purchase the business



• Open a new pharmacy business within the Control of Entry regulations for deciding if a pharmacy is necessary or expedient



• Open a pharmacy under the Control of Entry exemption clauses e.g. a 100 hour pharmacy