UP TO £175,000 was spent on external prescribing advice last year, new data has revealed.
The response to a freedom-of-information request revealed that the government paid between £150,000 and £175,000 for external prescribing advice services in 2025.
External prescribing advice services typically provide independent expert guidance to help ensure medicines are prescribed safely, effectively and cost-efficiently.
Spending on this service has increased over the past six years, having remained within the £100,000 to £125,000 band between 2020 and 2023 before rising to between £125,000 and £150,000 in 2024 and between £150,000 and £175,000 in 2025.
The figures were released in response to a request asking how much the government had spent on external prescribing advisers and prescribing advice services, as well as the cost of any internal prescribing advisers, over the past six years.
The government said it has an agreement for services with an external company, “the majority of which can be broadly considered as prescribing advice”.
However, it declined to disclose the exact value of the contract, citing commercial sensitivity, and instead published the contract value in bands.
Asked about internal prescribing advisers, the government said it does not employ staff specifically in those roles.
Responsibility for prescribing advice instead falls, in part, to pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working within the Hospital Pharmacy as part of their wider duties.
The response added that it was not possible to calculate the time spent providing prescribing advice separately from those wider responsibilities and, therefore, could not determine the associated cost.
