Request

You asked us:

1. Can you tell me the precise number of GMC registered Doctors that are involved in assessing claims arisen from the Covid vaccine for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, under your current supplier contract from 2021?

2. How many of these Drs are Rheumatologists?

3. If a claim is made for a rare condition arising from the Covid vaccine such as GPA ANCA Vasculitis, are they just considered by the a same medical assessor who assesses all claims or is a specialist considered? Bearing in mind that the normal GMC registered Doctor in general practice has little in depth knowledge of this condition/causation, no matter how many years registered?

4. How long is it taking on average for a mandatory reversal to be considered from the date it is sent back to the medical assessors?

5. Does the same initial medical assessor who made the decision reconsider it again?

6. How many mandatory reversals have been received to date from 1/4/21? How many have been assessed to date and how many have been successful?

7. How many claims have been successful for a payment where Vasculitis resulted from the Covid vaccine?

8. How many mandatory reversals have been successful from 2021 involving the Covid vaccine.

9. How many appeals have been submitted from 2021? How many have gone through tribunal to date and how many have been successful?’

[Clarification received]

Please use 1/11/21 as the date for my requests to be taken from and I am only interested in data relating to claims resulting from the Covid vaccines.

Our response

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

All data relates to claims received by the NHSBSA and those transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on 1 November 2021. All data is as of 30 April 2025. All figures provided relate to COVID-19 vaccines only.

Fewer than five

Please be aware that I have decided not to release the full details where the total number of individuals falls below five. This is because the information is exempt under section 40(2) of the FOIA (personal information).

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

a. it is not fair to disclose individual’s 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 individual

Please see the following link to view the section 40 exemption in full:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

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. Please see the following link to view the section 41 exemption in full: 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/41

Question 1 - Can you tell me the precise number of GMC registered Doctors that are involved in assessing claims arisen from the Covid vaccine  for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, under your current supplier contract from 2021?

and

Question 2 - How many of these Drs are Rheumatologists?

and

Question 3 - If a claim is made for a rare condition arising from the Covid vaccine such as GPA ANCA Vasculitis, are they just considered by the a same medical assessor who assesses all claims or is a specialist considered? Bearing in mind that the normal GMC registered Doctor in general practice has little in depth knowledge of this condition/causation, no matter how many years registered?

I am writing to advise you that the information you requested is not held by NHSBSA.

Number of medical assessors

The NHSBSA administers the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) on behalf of the Department for Health and Social Care. We contract a third-party supplier, Crawford and Company; to carry out medical assessments for the VDPS and therefore the number of assessors is not held by the NHSBSA. However, the number of medical assessors contracted by the medical assessor supplier changes depending on the demands of the scheme.

Qualifications of the medical assessors

I have also established that the NHSBSA does not hold information on the qualifications of medical assessors. This is because the medical qualifications and experience of the medical assessors are the responsibility of the third-party medical assessment supplier Crawford and Company.

I hope, however, that the following information provides reassurance on this point. All claims are assessed by the independent medical assessment company with a consistent approach. Each case is considered on its own merits by an experienced medical assessor.

The contract with our supplier does not require them to tell us details of the qualifications of the medical assessors or their experience. The contract does require that all assessments carried out are undertaken by suitably qualified and experienced Registered Medical Practitioners. This includes being registered on the UK General Medical Council with a licence to practise and meet or exceed the following requirements:

• They are a Registered Medical Practitioner with at least five years’ post graduate experience, and
• They have experience of the performance of the medical and/or disability assessment, addressing questions of causation and impact in the context of legislative or policy requirements to assist the decision maker. 

Question 4 - How long is it taking on average for a mandatory reversal to be considered from the date it is sent back to the medical assessors?

If the claimant disagrees with the medical assessor’s decision and wants to challenge it, they can request that their claim is assessed again. This is called a mandatory reversal.

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.

Between 1 November 2021 to 30 April 2025, the average number of days it took from receiving the mandatory reversal request to communicating an outcome was 83 days.

The length of time it takes to progress a claim to the medical assessment stage depends on how long it takes for the healthcare providers listed on the claim form to send medical records to us. We’re working with healthcare providers to speed up their response times to requests for medical records.

Question 5 - Does the same initial medical assessor who made the decision reconsider it again?

I am writing to advise you that the information you requested is not held by NHSBSA. As mentioned previously, the NHSBSA contracts a third-party supplier, Crawford and Company, to carry out medical assessments for the VDPS. The allocation of assessments to medical assessors is performed by Crawford and Company and not the NHSBSA.

Question 6 - How many mandatory reversals have been received to date from 1/4/21? How many have been assessed to date and how many have been successful?

If the claimant disagrees with the medical assessor’s decision and wants to challenge it, they can request that their claim is assessed again. This is called a mandatory reversal.

As part of the mandatory reversal process, medical assessors will fully consider all aspects of the claim again, including eligibility, causation and disablement. Medical assessors consider all available evidence, including medical records and scientific evidence (which may have evolved) at the time of the assessment.

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.

The following information is for COVID-19 claims received between 1 November 2021 and 30 April 2025 where a mandatory reversal request has been made only. The figures therefore differ to other FOI releases where a start date has not been specified.

1,783 requests for a mandatory reversal have been received.

1,160 mandatory reversals have been assessed at least once. Under the government’s rules for the VDPS, there is no limit on the number of times a claimant can request a mandatory reversal, and there is no time limit.

Of these, 13 claimants have been notified that they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment and the remaining have been rejected.

Question 7 - How many claims have been successful for a payment where Vasculitis resulted from the Covid vaccine?

We are unable to provide a breakdown of how many claims have been successful for a payment where Vasculitis resulted from a COVID-19 vaccine. This is because doing so would result in the disclosure of a figure that is fewer than fiv.

We have therefore decided not to disclose this figure under section 40 (2) and section 41 of the FOIA. Details of these exemptions are outlined above.

Question 8 - How many mandatory reversals have been successful from 2021 involving the Covid vaccine.

The following information is for COVID-19 claims received between 1 November 2021 and 30 April 2025 where a mandatory reversal request has been made only. The figures therefore differ to other FOI releases where a start date has not been specified.

1,783 requests for a mandatory reversal have been received.

1,160 mandatory reversals have been assessed at least once. Under the government’s rules for the VDPS, there is no limit on the number of times a claimant can request a mandatory reversal, and there is no time limit.

Of these, 13 claimants have been notified that they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment and the remaining have been rejected.

Question 9 - How many appeals have been submitted from 2021? How many have gone through tribunal to date and how many have been successful?

Please be advised that since the disclosure of FOI-02559, whereby the figure was 64, the figure has increased by fewer than five at the time your request was received. We have therefore decided not to disclose this figure under section 40 (2) and section 41 of the FOIA. Details of these exemptions are outlined above.

You can view this FOI-02559 using the following link:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02559

No appeals to the tribunal have resulted in a Vaccine Damage Payment being awarded.

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.