diff --git a/app/dao/notifications_dao.py b/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
index 3a203ae76..4a9f028be 100644
--- a/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
+++ b/app/dao/notifications_dao.py
@@ -629,6 +629,7 @@ def dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(
     statuses=None,
     page=1,
     page_size=None,
+    error_out=True,
 ):
 
     if notification_type == SMS_TYPE:
@@ -679,7 +680,7 @@ def dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(
     results = db.session.query(Notification)\
         .filter(*filters)\
         .order_by(desc(Notification.created_at))\
-        .paginate(page=page, per_page=page_size)
+        .paginate(page=page, per_page=page_size, count=False, error_out=error_out)
     return results
 
 
diff --git a/app/service/rest.py b/app/service/rest.py
index 0aae0534b..99478ca7d 100644
--- a/app/service/rest.py
+++ b/app/service/rest.py
@@ -530,11 +530,29 @@ def search_for_notification_by_to_field(service_id, search_term, statuses, notif
         page=1,
         page_size=current_app.config['PAGE_SIZE'],
     )
+
+    # We try and get the next page of results to work out if we need provide a pagination link to the next page
+    # in our response. Note, this was previously be done by having
+    # notifications_dao.dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference use count=False when calling
+    # Flask-Sqlalchemys `paginate'. But instead we now use this way because it is much more performant for
+    # services with many results (unlike using Flask SqlAlchemy `paginate` with `count=True`, this approach
+    # doesn't do an additional query to count all the results of which there could be millions but instead only
+    # asks for a single extra page of results).
+    next_page_of_pagination = notifications_dao.dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_or_reference(
+        service_id=service_id,
+        search_term=search_term,
+        statuses=statuses,
+        notification_type=notification_type,
+        page=2,
+        page_size=current_app.config['PAGE_SIZE'],
+        error_out=False  # False so that if there are no results, it doesn't end in aborting with a 404
+    )
+
     return jsonify(
         notifications=notification_with_template_schema.dump(results.items, many=True).data,
         links=get_prev_next_pagination_links(
             1,
-            results.has_next,
+            len(next_page_of_pagination.items),
             '.get_all_notifications_for_service',
             statuses=statuses,
             notification_type=notification_type,
diff --git a/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py b/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
index a237bf5fd..66b54bbf2 100644
--- a/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
+++ b/tests/app/dao/notification_dao/test_notification_dao.py
@@ -1067,7 +1067,6 @@ def test_dao_get_notifications_by_recipient_is_limited_to_50_results(sample_temp
     )
 
     assert len(results.items) == 50
-    assert results.has_next is True
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("search_term",