I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested on 15 November 2024.

Request

You asked us:

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:

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

2)How many claimants have been notified of an outcome?

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

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

5)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.

6) 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.

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

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

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

Our response

All information provided is as of 31 October 2024.

I can confirm that the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) holds some of the information you have requested, and a copy of the information held is attached. Please see below regarding information which we hold, and which we do not.

In December 2020, ministers agreed to add COVID-19 vaccines to the Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979 (VDPA). Therefore, any claims received between 1979 and December 2020 were non-COVID-19 related vaccination claims.

Monthly Breakdown of Historic Outcomes

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) administered the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) from 1979 until October 2021.

We took over administration of the VDPS from DWP on 1 November 2021.

We did not receive a breakdown of outcomes (rejections and awards) communicated to claimants by DWP by month or year when we took over administration of the scheme. Although we have previously provided a breakdown of monthly outcomes, this was based on the month the claim was registered, not the month the outcome was communicated to the claimant. Therefore, upon review, we have concluded that we do not hold a monthly or yearly breakdown of outcomes communicated by DWP.

If you would like to receive a monthly breakdown which shows awards per month based on the month of registration, please submit a fresh request. Alternatively, if you require information on outcomes broken down by month they were issued, please contact DWP as follows:

Freedom of Information Requests

Department of Work and Pensions

Caxton House

Tothill Street

London

SW1H 9NA

Email freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gsi.gov.uk

Fewer than five

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of outcomes 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.

Please note that any monthly breakdowns which are fewer than five have been replaced with an asterisk (*). Please note that some values have been removed despite them being five or more. This is because including these would make it easy to work out the figures which are fewer than five.

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.

Breach of Confidentiality

Please note that the identification of individuals is also a breach of the common law duty of confidence. An individual who has been identified could make a claim against the NHSBSA for the disclosure of the confidential information.

The information requested is therefore being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act.  

Questions 1 to 6

Please find this information attached. Some figures have been removed for reasons/exemptions quoted above.

Please note that the total outcomes (question 2 of your request) are provided by totaling the awards and rejections (questions 3 and 4 of your request). This does not include invalid claims. Invalid claims are not assessed by an assessor, and therefore do not count as a rejection. Invalid claims have been given as a separate column.

Since disclosure of FOI-02252 (see below web link to this published response) whereby 188 claimants were notified they were entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment following a COVID-19 vaccine claim, this number has increased by fewer than five, so the total has been withheld.

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02252 We have inserted “not applicable” where the claim does not relate to COVID-19 vaccinations and therefore not relevant to question 6.

Question 7

1,041 claims were received more than 12 months ago and have not yet reached an outcome. Of these 973 are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

Of these 1,041 claims, 397 claims were received more than 18 months ago and have not yet reached an outcome. Of these 397 claims, 360 are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

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

1,369 requests for a mandatory reversal have been received. 1,320 of these are COVID-19 vaccine related claims.

Of the 1,369 mandatory reversal requests received, 753 outcomes have been communicated. Of the 753 outcomes communicated, 736 are COVID-19 vaccine related claims. Of the 753 outcomes communicated, the outcome remained the same for 734. 717 of the 734 claims are COVID-19 related claims.

Of the 753 outcomes communicated, 19 have been notified they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment. All of these are COVID-19 related claims.

At the mandatory reversal stage, a claimant is advised that they can add further evidence to support their claim. For example, a claimant can ask the NHSBSA to contact healthcare providers to obtain evidence of further treatment received since their original claim.

Publishing this response

Please note that this information will be published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02394

your personal details will be removed from the published response.

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 2025” 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.