Thousands of users of an online prescription service have had their data sold without their knowledge, a Mail investigation can reveal today. Their names and addresses have been handed to companies that target the sick. Many of the patients used the Pharmacy 2U service because they were disabled or too ill to travel to their nearest surgery. Others used the firm’s online doctor consultations. Scroll down for video . Pharmacy 2U, an online prescription service, has sold patients information to marketing companies without their knowledge . Pharmacy 2U, which is the country’s leading NHS approved online pharmacy, even gave the patients’ email addresses, dates of birth and date of their last prescriptions to a marketing firm. MPs said the company was putting thousands of patients at risk and should face a police probe. The revelations come amid a growing outcry over the Mail’s reporting on how sensitive medical and financial data is being sold to conmen and criminals. Today we can also reveal that: . Following a major investigation, the Mail this week revealed how financial details of thousands of people – including details of their incomes, investments and pension pots – were being sold for as little as 5p to cold callers and fraudsters. The prescription company even gave the patients’ email addresses, dates of birth and date of their last prescriptions to firms . And our disclosures yesterday included how undercover reporters were also able to buy private medical details – including names of people suffering from arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure and even bladder problems – for just 19p each. Some of this information on sick and disabled people is ending up in the hands of conmen and criminals who prey on the most vulnerable. Now it can be revealed that details of NHS patients who have bought prescriptions online are also being offered for sale. The details sold to Alchemy Direct Media by Pharmacy 2U, which has a turnover of £17million a year, include the names and addresses of people who have requested online doctor consultations using the site. On its website, Alchemy described those on the list as people who had used Pharmacy 2U to ‘place their GP prescriptions and have them delivered to their home address’. Andy Burnham, Labour's health spokesman, has described this as an 'extremely serious matter' The details appear to have been passed on without the proper consent of patients. When registering for online prescriptions, patients using Pharmacy2U have to agree to terms and conditions but these do not cover anything about their information being passed on to third parties. That is only stated in the small print of the website’s privacy policy. Pharmacy2U admitted to the Mail that it had sold the names and addresses of ‘up to 5,000’ patients on three occasions, refusing to say how much it had charged. It said it had decided to stop selling the information and stressed no medical data had been passed on. But Andy Burnham, Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘This is an extremely serious matter. The Government must initiate an inquiry and call in the police to see if a crime has been committed. Pharmacy2U should immediately be suspended as an approved distributor. ‘Jeremy Hunt has failed in his primary duty to protect vulnerable patients. He must make an urgent statement to set out how widespread this practice is, whether there have been other breaches and what action is being taken against Pharmacy2U.’ Dr Sarah Wollaston, the outgoing Tory chairman of the health select committee, called for a criminal investigation into Pharmacy2U. She said: ‘This is awful. It is just beyond belief that anyone working for this company could have thought it reasonable to sell these records. If people forward their prescriptions to a pharmacy they should never expect that to be anything other than totally confidential. ‘The CEO of this company should be personally held to account. Did he know about this? People should never use this online service again. ‘I just can’t see how this could be legal. It is a whole other level. I hope the police will investigate.’ Andrew Percy, a Tory member of the Commons health select committee, said: ‘This is the most disgraceful breach of trust. ‘People access NHS services with an expectation that everything about it will be private. ‘Patients would never expect that when using an NHS approved pharmacy service their details would then be sold on. The Mail’s undercover team contacted Data Bubble, which is run by Mrs Clayton, and found its selling sensitive pension details for as little as 19p . ‘This is putting our most vulnerable people at risk. It is a complete outrage and must stop immediately.’ Tory MP Charlotte Leslie, who sat on the health select committee, said the fact that NHS patients’ details were sold on was ‘incredibly concerning’. She said that firms should not be selling data without ‘people’s explicit knowledge and their explicit consent.’ The Mail’s revelations on the sale of medical and financial data have sparked a major inquiry by the office of the Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham. Nick Sayer, a director of B2C Data, offered to sell details of 15,000 people to undercover reporters in a Mail expose this week . Yesterday Mr Graham praised the Mail’s investigation and rubbished the firms’ claims that people ‘opted in’ to having their medical details sold on. He said: ‘It’s just beyond belief that people have signed up to be col called about their bladder problems. ‘What the Daily Mail team appear to have discovered is that there’s a nice little trade going between different commercial companies where our personal info has value to others.’ A spokesman for Pharmacy 2U said: ‘Only name and address information has been sold and no permission for any other data to be sold has been provided by Pharmacy2U. ‘Alchemy Direct Media (UK) Ltd work for Pharmacy2U under a strict agreement and other data was provided to them under that agreement for internal purposes, such as understanding the recency of the data, but not for sale to external parties. ‘This type of data processing for companies by their agencies is normal business practice. No medication information or data relating to medical conditions has been shared with Alchemy Direct Media (UK) Ltd.’ Michael Smith, managing director of Alchemy Direct Media, said: ‘We are an ICO registered company and are satisfied that the information held on this database complies with current data protection and ICO regulation.’
Names, addresses and dates of birth among information sold off to firms . Pharmacy 2U is the country's leading NHS approved online pharmacy . But Mail investigation can reveal that patients personal details were sold . MPs said company put thousands at risk and it should face a police probe . Comes amid outcry over medical and financial data being sold to conmen . NHS dentists are buying data on patients in order to try to sell them treatments; . Payday loan brokers are passing on the financial details of vulnerable people who have been refused cash – leading to them being targeted by conmen; . Schools are buying information on teenagers’ parents from a data firm already exposed for selling medical details; . The Department for Business paid an unscrupulous data firm up to £15,000 in public money to help them target small business owners.