Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Since the inception of the scheme, can you please provide the following information.

(a) for all vaccine-injury (including Covid-19 vaccine-injury), and

(b) only for COVID-19 vaccine injury:

How many claims have been made to the VDPS per month and total number?

How many claimants have been notified of an outcome?

How many claims have been successful per month and total number? Please provide a breakdown of which vaccine were used in the claims awarded.

How many claims have been rejected / unsuccessful per month and total number?

What are the reasons for claims being rejected (causation, not meeting 60% threshold, ineligible to claim.) Please provide numbers? Please provide a breakdown of which vaccine was used for claims rejected.

What are the reasons for an application 'not to meet the criteria for medical assessment' (date of vaccine, etc...). Please provide numbers of claim deemed ineligible for each reason.

How many claims have been waiting over 12 months, 18 months for a decision?

How many requests for a mandatory reconsideration have been received. How many have been determined? Of those determined how many have been allowed/ refused?

Your request was received on 10 July, and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

All data as of 11 July 2023.

All data relates to claims received by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) and those transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on 1 November 2021.

Fewer than five

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of claimants falls below five. This is because the claimants could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available.

This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) it is not fair to disclose claimants’ personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress.

b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the claimants.

Questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6

In December 2020, ministers agreed to add COVID-19 vaccines to the VDPS. Therefore, any claims received between 1978 and 2019 were non-COVID-19 related.

A copy of the information is attached.

Please note, that the year a claim was awarded might differ from the year the claim was registered.

Question 2:

The NHSBSA was formally requested by DHSC to add the VDPS to our portfolio of work from 1 November 2021, so we do not hold the detailed data prior to this point. We do hold the data for how many claims have been awarded and rejected, which is confirmed in question 3 and 4 of this response.

From November 2021:

2,454 claimants have been notified of an outcome. Of these:

2,352 relate to a COVID-19 vaccine claim.

Question 3

Please note, we have decided not to release the breakdown of awards by month or vaccine. This is due to the risk of claimants being identified where the award is fewer than five. The information has therefore been provided annually. We have also supressed figures less than five to prevent identification of claimants.

Question 5

Please note, we have decided not to release the breakdown of rejections by month or vaccine. This is due to the risk of claimants being identified where the rejection is fewer than five. The information has therefore been provided as a total from 1978 to 2019 and annually from 2020 to 2023.

Additional information regarding the data:

In December 2020, ministers agreed to add COVID-19 vaccines to the VDPS. Therefore, any claims received between 1978 and 2019 were non-COVID-19 related.

Invalid applications did not meet the criteria for medical assessment and therefore are not counted as rejections.

The independent medical assessor will look at the claim form, the vaccinated person’s full medical records, clinical research, epidemiological evidence, and the current consensus of expert medical opinion. The assessor will advise if the claimant is entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment, based on whether:

the vaccine, on the balance of probabilities, caused the disability (causation); and

the resulting disablement is severe.

Severely disabled means at least 60% disabled, assessed for the purposes of section 103 of The Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. Further principles for assessing the extent of disablement are set out in the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982 (legislation.gov.uk).

Question 6:

Please note, that in Column D, Row 4, the total of 24 also includes shoulder injury relating to vaccine administration (SIRVA). Claims to the VDPS in relation to the administration of the vaccine - the act of vaccinating a claimant - are not covered by the scheme.

Question 7:

612 claims were received more than 12 months ago and have not yet reached an outcome. Of these 557 are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

Of these 612 claims, 194 claims were received more than 18 months ago and have not yet reached an outcome. Of these 194 claims, 166 are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

Additional information regarding the data:

As part of the process of the scheme, we need a full set of medical records for each claimant, and it can take time for the claimant’s healthcare providers to gather and securely supply copies of these records.

Once sent for assessment, the time it takes for the independent medical assessor to review a claim can vary from case to case depending on the individual circumstances of each claim.

Question 8:

The NHSBSA was formally requested by DHSC to add the VDPS to our portfolio of work from 1 November 2021, so we do not hold the detailed data prior to this point. We do not hold the data for how many mandatory reversals have been processed prior to this date.

From November 2021:

283 requests for a mandatory reversal have been received. 271 of these are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

26 mandatory reversals have been reassessed for COVID-19 vaccine related claims. Of these, fewer than five have been notified they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment and the remaining have been rejected.

The requested number of mandatory reversals received for non-COVID-19 related vaccines has not been provided. This is because it is fewer than five.

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement:

“NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.