Thank you for your request for information. I am writing to confirm that I have now completed my search for the information which you requested on 23 June 2025.

Request

You asked us:

‘I would like an answer to the following questions:
1. Who has been given a one off payment for Covid 19 vaccine damage?
2. What damage was the payment for?
3. How many people recieved payment?
4. How long did the claim take?
5. Did they have legal representation’

Which you have subsequently clarified Question 4 to:

‘4. I would like to know the average time it takes for a claim to be settled’

Your clarified request was received on 3 July 2025 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Our response

I can confirm that the NHSBSA holds some of the information you have requested and a copy of the information. All data is as of 31 May 2025 and relates 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).

Section 40(2) is an absolute, prejudice-based exemption and therefore is exempt if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles. In order for disclosure to comply with the lawfulness, fairness, and transparency principle, we either need the consent of the data subject(s) or there must be a legitimate interest in disclosure. In addition, the disclosure must be necessary to meet the legitimate interest and finally, the disclosure must not cause unwarranted harm.

As we do not have the consent of the data subject(s), the NHSBSA is therefore required to conduct a balancing exercise between legitimate interest of the applicant in disclosure against the rights and freedoms of the data subject(s).

The NHSBSA acknowledges that you have a legitimate interest in disclosure of the information in order to provide the full picture of the requested data held by the NHSBSA; however, we have concluded that disclosure of the requested information would cause unwarranted harm and therefore, section 40(2) is engaged. This is because there is a reasonable expectation that patient data processed by the NHSBSA remains confidential.

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

This information is exempt under section 41 of the FOIA (information provided in confidence). This is because the requested information was provided to the NHSBSA in confidence.

In order for Section 41 to be engaged, the following criteria must be fulfilled:

• the authority must have obtained the information from another person,
• its disclosure must constitute a breach of confidence,
• a legal person must be able to bring an action for the breach of confidence to court, and
• that court action must be likely to succeed.

The NHSBSA can confirm that the information has been obtained from a third party and that subsequent disclosure of that information would constitute a breach of confidence. In addition, disclosure could result in a legal person being able to bring action for the breach of confidence to a court and that court action.

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 - Who has been given a one off payment for Covid 19 vaccine damage?

We are unable to provide a breakdown of who has been paid. This is because doing so would result in the disclosure of personal information.

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

Question 2 - What damage was the payment for?

The list shows specific conditions that have been identified in medical records for those awarded a payment. Claims could be in relation to a mixture of the listed conditions and other conditions.

Submitting a claim in relation to one of the awarded conditions does not mean it will meet the criteria for a Vaccine Damage Payment. This is because each claim is considered on its own merits and in accordance with the criteria of the scheme. VDPS assessments are complex. Each claim is assessed on a case-by-case basis, based upon the individual's medical records, scientific evidence, clinical research and epidemiological evidence.

The main conditions of the claims awarded a Vaccine Damage Payment are:
• Acute allergic reaction
• Anaphylaxis
• Bacteria pneumonia
• Bell's palsy
• Bilateral sequential optic neuropathy
• Capillary leak syndrome
• Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP)
• Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS)
• Immune response to vaccine
• Immune thrombocytopenia
• Inflammation of lungs
• Myocardial Infarction
• Myocarditis/pericarditis
• Pulmonary Embolus
• Stroke/CVA
• Transverse myelitis
• Vaccine-induced vasculitis
• VITT/Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 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:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/contents
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1982/1408/schedule/2

Question 3 - How many people received payment?

Since the disclosure of FOI-02224, whereby 186 awards have been paid between 26 August 2021 and 19 September 2024, this total has increased by fewer than five. We’re therefore unable to disclose the latest number of awards paid in 2024.

The total number of awards can be found in FOI-02224:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02224

In addition, the number of awards paid in 2021 was fewer than five, so we have grouped the figures for 2021 and 2022 together.

Please read the below notes to ensure correct understanding of the data.

Please note that the figures provided are for the number of awards which have been paid, not the number of awards communicated. There may therefore be awards that have not been paid yet because we are waiting for further information from the claimant. For example, their bank details.

Each awarded Vaccine Damage Payment is a one-off, tax-free payment of £120,000. A Vaccine Damage Payment is not compensation.

Visit GOV.UK at the below web link for more information about the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme:
https://www.gov.uk/vaccine-damage-payment

Question 4 - I would like to know the average time it takes for a claim to be settled

The average duration, calculated from the date the claim was registered to the date of the outcome, is 277 days. The length of time it takes to process a claim varies from case to case. This will depend on the complexity of the case and the length of time it takes healthcare providers to supply any requested medical records.

Question 5 - Did they have legal representation?

We are unable to confirm if we hold this information for all COVID-19 vaccine claims. This is because claimants can apply without telling us that they have sought legal representation.

To confirm, if we hold the requested information in relation to any COVID-19 vaccine claims, we would have to review each record in order to determine if the claimant had legal representation. As such, we therefore estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA.

The cost of complying with your request for non-central Government limit is £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving, extracting and checking the information.

Please note, the following calculations are based on 186 claim records requiring review. As per our response to question 3, however, as there have been less than 5 claims since confirmation of this figure, this would therefore take longer than the minimum time confirmed as follows:

186 x 20 minutes = 62 hours.

Under our section 16 duty to advise and assist, I can confirm that it is not possible to refine the question within scope of the appropriate limit as set out above.

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-02948

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.