Request

The number of individuals who have received a Vaccine Damage Payment due to an irregular heartbeat following vaccination.

Any available details on the criteria used to determine eligibility for these payments in cases involving an irregular heartbeat.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 21 October 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

All data as of 30 September 2024.

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested. 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.

The claimant can tell us what happened after vaccination on the claim form. At the medical assessment stage, the independent medical assessor provides a description of the assessed conditions they have been able to identify from the claimant's medical records. This can sometimes be a mixture of conditions. The condition recorded against each claim may therefore be different to the condition initially stated by the claimant on their original claim form.

All data provided relates to the conditions listed by the independent medical assessor in the assessment report.

Question 1

Zero medical assessment reports of claimants who have received a Vaccine Damage Payment contain the search term ‘irregular heartbeat’.

Question 2

Under Section 21 of the FOIA we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

To qualify for a Vaccine Damage Payment, it must be proved that an eligible vaccine was received and:

• on the balance of probabilities, the vaccine caused the disability

• the resulting disablement is severe

Severely disabled means at least 60% as defined by the principles for assessing the extent of disablement. These are set out in section 103 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and the Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982.

Independent medical assessors use resources to support their assessment. These resources are available at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/vaccine-damage-payment-scheme-vdps-claim-process

The process of assessment is the same for all medical conditions.

The Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 is available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1979/17/contents

The Social Security (General Benefit) Regulations 1982 is available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1982/1408/contents

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

Reusing the data and copyright

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 2024” 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.