openprescribing.net

OpenPrescribing is a free web platform for exploring prescribing data published by the NHS in England. It is designed and built by the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science in the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. The site turns the NHS's monthly, anonymised GP prescribing data — roughly 17 million rows per month in raw form — into dashboards, trends, and custom queries that are easier to search and interpret. It is aimed at anyone who wants to examine prescribing patterns, from clinicians and analysts to researchers and the general public.

Where the data comes from

Every month, the NHS in England publishes anonymised data about prescriptions issued by GPs. OpenPrescribing takes those large raw files and makes them explorable, with the stated goal of supporting safer, more efficient prescribing. The platform also notes that if you use its data or graphs, you should cite them as: OpenPrescribing.net, Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, 2026.

What you can do on the site

The homepage groups its tools under a few main tasks:

• Look at your Sub-ICB Location — dashboards for every ICB, Sub-ICB Location, and practice in the country, based on standard prescribing measures.
• Look at your GP practice — the same standard measures, organised as a dashboard for every GP practice in England.
• Run your own analyses — a flexible query form for getting specific prescribing data quickly.
• Spot national trends — see how national prescribing trends have changed over the last 5 years for any drug or BNF section.
• Look at your hospital — hospital drug data, including dashboards, a hospital's data submission history, and custom queries.
• Drug Tariff — Drug Tariff data for England from 2010, covering prices, price concessions, and how they have changed over time.

Navigation and supporting pages

The site's navigation reflects the same structure: Area and Practice Dashboards (Practices, PCNs, Sub-ICB Locations, ICBs, Regional Teams, Hospitals, All England), Trends (for BNF sections, chemicals, and Drug Tariff and Concessions), plus a SICBL improvement radar. Supporting pages include How to use, Stay in touch, FAQ, API, About, Research, dm+d, Blog, and Privacy Policy.

Who it is for

Because the dashboards are pre-built for every ICB, Sub-ICB Location, practice, and hospital, you do not need to handle the raw data yourself to look at a specific organisation. If you have a more specific question, the custom query form and the API are the routes for deeper analysis. The site also publishes guidelines for using the data, which are worth reading before you reuse or republish anything from it.

Practical notes

• The data covers England and is published monthly by the NHS.
• GP prescribing data is anonymised.
• Drug Tariff coverage starts from 2010.
• Hospital drug data is a newer addition to the platform.
• The site is maintained by the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, with funding details on its about page.

OpenPrescribing lets you chart national prescribing trends for any drug or BNF section over the last 5 years. From the homepage, use the Trends menu and choose either Trends for BNF sections or Trends for chemicals, or click Find a drug under "Spot national trends." You'll get a national-level chart showing how prescribing for that item has changed over time.

What you can look at

The site separates trends into two main paths:

• Trends for BNF sections — broader categories of medicines grouped by BNF classification.
• Trends for chemicals — individual drugs or chemical substances.

There is also a Trends for Drug Tariff and Concessions option, which is separate from the prescribing trend charts and relates to Drug Tariff pricing and price concessions.

If you're not sure which drug or section you want, the Find a drug entry point is the simplest starting place.

Step-by-step

1. Go to openprescribing.net.
2. Open the Trends menu in the top navigation.
3. Select Trends for BNF sections or Trends for chemicals, depending on whether you want a category or a specific drug.
4. Search for the drug or BNF section you're interested in.
5. View the chart to see how national prescribing has changed over the last 5 years.

Expected result: a national trend chart for your chosen drug or BNF section, showing the direction and scale of change over time.

What the trends tell you

National trend data helps you see whether prescribing for a drug or class is rising, falling, or stable across England. This is useful for:

• Checking whether a change you've noticed locally reflects a wider national pattern.
• Understanding how prescribing behaviour for a BNF section has shifted over several years.
• Providing context before looking at a specific practice, PCN, Sub-ICB Location, or ICB dashboard.

Related ways to explore the data

If you want to go beyond national trends, OpenPrescribing also provides:

Citing the data

If you use OpenPrescribing data or graphs, the site asks you to cite it as: OpenPrescribing.net, Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, 2026. This helps others find the source.

Common sticking points

• "Trends" vs "Find a drug" — both lead to trend views; the Trends menu is more explicit about whether you're searching by BNF section or by chemical.
• BNF section vs chemical — if your search returns nothing useful, try the other option. A drug name may sit under a chemical entry, while a therapeutic area is better found as a BNF section.
• National vs local — the trend charts show national data. To see a specific practice or area, use the dashboards instead.
• Time range — the national trend view covers the last 5 years, so it won't show longer historical patterns.

OpenPrescribing publishes anonymised NHS England GP prescribing data and provides a dashboard for every ICB, Sub-ICB Location, and GP practice in the country. To find yours, use the "Analyse" menu in the top navigation and choose the geography level you want — "Practices" for a single GP surgery, or "Sub-ICB Locations" / "ICBs" for your local area. Each dashboard shows the same set of standard prescribing measures, so you can compare your practice or area against others.

Which dashboard level do you need?

The site organises dashboards by NHS geography. Pick the level that matches your question:

If you are not sure which Sub-ICB Location or ICB your practice sits in, start from the practice dashboard — it sits within that structure.

Step-by-step: find a GP practice dashboard

1. Open the site and click Analyse in the top navigation.
2. Select Practices.
3. Search for your practice by name or code, or browse the list.
4. Open the practice page to see its dashboard of standard prescribing measures.
5. Use the measures shown to compare the practice against others, and follow links to the underlying data if you need detail.

The same pattern applies to areas: choose Sub-ICB Locations or ICBs instead of Practices, then search for your area.

What you will see on a dashboard

Each dashboard presents a set of standard prescribing measures that the site has identified, rather than raw prescription rows. This is the main reason the site exists: NHS England publishes around 17 million rows of prescribing data per month, and the dashboards turn that into comparable measures for every ICB, Sub-ICB Location, and practice.

Beyond dashboards, you can:

• Run your own analyses with the flexible query form if the standard measures do not answer your question.
• Spot national trends over the last 5 years for any drug or BNF section.
• Check Drug Tariff data for England from 2010, including prices and price concessions.
• Look at hospital drug data, including dashboards and submission history.

Common sticking points

• Wrong geography level. A practice dashboard will not show you ICB-level totals; switch level in the Analyse menu.
• Expecting patient-level data. The underlying NHS data is anonymised, and the site presents aggregate prescribing measures.
• Needing a measure that is not listed. Use the custom query form rather than assuming the dashboard is incomplete.
• Citing the data. If you use the data or graphs, the site asks you to cite it as: OpenPrescribing.net, Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, 2026.

The site is designed and built by the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, and it also publishes guidance on using the data — worth reading before you draw conclusions from a dashboard.

OpenPrescribing provides a flexible query form that lets you pull custom prescribing data instead of relying only on the pre-built dashboards. Use it when you have a specific question — a particular drug, practice, time period, or comparison — that the standard dashboards don't answer. The site is built by the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford, and it repackages the anonymised GP prescription data that NHS England publishes monthly (roughly 17 million rows per month in the raw files).

What the custom analysis tool is for

The dashboards cover standard prescribing measures for every ICB, Sub-ICB Location, practice, and hospital. The query form is the escape hatch for everything else: ad-hoc questions, unusual combinations of filters, or data you want to extract and work with yourself.

Typical reasons to use it:

• You want prescribing data for a specific drug or BNF section that isn't on a standard dashboard.
• You want to compare several practices or areas on a measure you define.
• You want to check a trend over a custom time window.
• You want the underlying numbers rather than a chart.

Step-by-step: running a query

1. Go to the query form. From the OpenPrescribing homepage, select Start analysing under "Run your own analyses." This opens the flexible query form.
2. Choose what you're measuring. Select the drug, chemical, BNF section, or prescribing measure you're interested in. The form is built around BNF coding, so knowing the relevant BNF section or chemical name helps.
3. Set the scope. Pick the organisation level you want — practice, PCN, Sub-ICB Location, ICB, regional team, hospital, or All England.
4. Set the time period. Choose the months or date range you want included.
5. Run the query. The form returns the data for your selection, which you can then read on screen or take further.
6. Verify the result. Sanity-check the output against a known dashboard figure for the same organisation and period. If the numbers diverge, your filters are probably narrower or broader than you intended.

Expected result: a dataset scoped exactly to your question, rather than the fixed view a dashboard gives you.

Other entry points worth knowing

The query form isn't the only way in. Depending on your question, one of these may be faster:

The API is the right choice if you need to automate pulls or feed data into another tool. The query form is better for one-off exploration.

Practical points and common snags

• BNF coding is the backbone. Queries are organised by BNF section and chemical, so unfamiliar drug names may need checking against the dm+d or BNF structure first.
• The data is anonymised and published monthly. It reflects prescriptions issued by GPs in England; it is not real-time.
• Cite it properly. If you use the data or graphs, the site asks you to cite: OpenPrescribing.net, Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, 2026.
• Read the usage guidelines. The site points to its guidelines for using the data and its FAQ — worth checking before publishing anything derived from it.
• Hospital data is newer. Hospital drug data has been added more recently than the GP data, and new measures continue to launch (for example, an anticoagulation measure and an AIR/MART inhaler measure in September 2026), so coverage varies by dataset.

When to use the query form vs. a dashboard

Use a dashboard when your question matches a standard prescribing measure for a practice, PCN, Sub-ICB Location, ICB, regional team, or hospital — it's faster and already contextualised. Use the query form when your question is bespoke, when you need a custom combination of drug, geography, and time, or when you want the raw numbers to analyse yourself. If you're unsure, start with the dashboard for the organisation and see whether it already answers you; if not, move to the query form.

OpenPrescribing provides Drug Tariff data for England from 2010. On the site you can find prices, look at price concessions, and chart how they have changed over time. This is useful if you want to understand how the reimbursement price of a drug has moved, or check whether a product has been subject to a price concession in a given period.

What you can look up

The Drug Tariff section of OpenPrescribing is built around three main tasks:

• Find prices — look up Drug Tariff prices for products.
• Look at price concessions — see where concessions have applied.
• Chart changes over time — view how prices have changed across the available history.

The data covers England and starts from 2010, so any trend view is limited to that window rather than earlier years.

How to get there

From the OpenPrescribing homepage, the Drug Tariff entry sits alongside the other main tools (Area and Practice Dashboards, Trends, Hospitals, and the query form). Selecting it takes you to the Drug Tariff area, where the price, concession, and charting options are grouped.

The exact layout of filters and result tables is best confirmed on the live page, since the site is updated over time — for example, new measures have been launched in OpenPrescribing Hospitals in 2026.

What this is good for

If your question is about how much of a drug was prescribed rather than what it costs, the prescribing dashboards and the custom query form are the better starting points. The Drug Tariff area is specifically about pricing and reimbursement.

Practical notes

• Coverage: England only, from 2010.
• Anonymisation: the underlying prescribing data published by the NHS in England is anonymised; the Drug Tariff data is a separate dataset on the same platform.
• Citation: if you use the data or graphs, the site asks you to cite as OpenPrescribing.net, Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, University of Oxford, 2026.
• Usage guidelines: the site points to its guidelines for using the data, which are worth reading before republishing figures.

For anything beyond price lookup and charting — for example, combining tariff prices with practice-level prescribing — use the flexible query form under "Run your own analyses".