Reimbursed presciptions to pharmacies in the last three years

​​Request ​789146386

The government pays each pharmacy a fee for each prescription that is dispensed. In the UK this information on how many prescriptions have been paid to each pharmacy is in the public domain. Please can you provide figures for the number of prescriptions reimbursed to each individual pharmacy for the last three years?

Response

The Government of Jersey does hold the information requested; however, it is exempt from disclosure under Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, as releasing it would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of pharmacies and the Government of Jersey.

Disclosure of the volume of prescriptions would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of Pharmacies in Jersey, particularly smaller independent businesses. Ultimately this detrimental impact would also harm the commercial interests of the Government of Jersey who seek to achieve good value for money in public spending.

The volume of medicines dispensed is commercially sensitive because it could reveal details about the pharmacy's business performance and market share. Making this information public could disadvantage pharmacies in a competitive environment and undermine the Government of Jersey's ability to negotiate fair and cost-effective arrangements for dispensing and pharmaceutical services.

Although similar information is published in the UK, Jersey has a much smaller pharmacy market. This means that releasing pharmacy-level figures here could more easily reveal the commercial position of individual businesses.

Therefore, the requested information is not disclosed considering:

• the likelihood of harm to independent commercial businesses, and

• for the potential impact on the Government of Jersey's ability to undertake commercial negotiations and achieve value for money

Article applied 

Article 33 - Commercial interests 

Information is qualified exempt information if – 

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or 

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information). 

Public Interest Test 

An exemption on the basis of commercial sensitivity is a 'conditional' exemption, which requires the Government of Jersey to also consider a public interest test. 

While we recognise that there is a general public interest in transparency for the use of public funds, there is also a strong public interest in ensuring that pharmacies in Jersey can operate in a fair and competitive market. Disclosure of information regarding the number of items dispensed by each pharmacy could lead to commercial harm, reduce competition, and ultimately increase costs to the public sector.

On balance, we have concluded that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure.​