Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many applications there have been to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations; and how many claims have been (a) awarded, (b) rejected and (c) were unresolved for more than six months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority has received 7,160 claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) that relate to COVID-19.
Following medical assessment, 142 (just under 2%) of these claims have been awarded and 3,030 (42.3%) of these claims have been rejected. A further 192 (2.7%) claims were found to be ‘invalid’ (for example, outside the scope of the VDPS, or a duplicate claim).
There are 3,796 currently unresolved claims, 1,010 of which (14.1% of the total number of COVID-19 related claims) have been unresolved for more than six months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Ministerial Correction of 4 September 2023 to Question 11866 on Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, whether the average claim time is calculated from receipt of (a) the application or (b) the medical assessment in support of the application.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The average time taken to process a claim to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme is calculated by the NHS Business Services Authority from receipt of the application to the claimant receiving notification of the outcome.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the claims made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations, how many requests for medical documents have been made as of 6 September 2023; and, of those requests, how many have been outstanding for more than three months.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority is awaiting the provision of medical records for 2,706 COVID-19 related claims. Of these cases, 1784 claims have been outstanding for over three months.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the unresolved claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations as of 6 September 2023, how many were received (a) more than six months ago, (b) more than 12 months ago and (c) more than 18 months ago.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, of the unresolved claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to COVID-19 vaccinations, 1,009 were received six months or more ago, 379 were received 12 months or more ago and 135 were received 18 months or more ago.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations up to 6 September 2023 were made on behalf of someone who had died; and, of that number, how many (a) were awarded, (b) were rejected and (c) are outstanding.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. As of 1 September 2023, the NHS Business Services Authority has received 539 COVID-19 vaccine related claims on behalf of someone who has died. Of these claims, 53 claimants have been informed they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment, 199 have been rejected and 287 claims are outstanding.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme relating to covid-19 vaccinations, how many claims made before 6 September 2023 failed because (a) causation was accepted but disablement was assessed at less than 60%, (b) there was a lack of causation and (c) any other reason.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Data up to 6 September 2023 is not currently available. Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) took over administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in November 2021, as of 1 September 2023, NHSBSA has 3,030 rejected COVID-19 claims. 2,809 were rejected due to lack of causation and 221 were rejected due to not meeting the 60% disability threshold. Separately, 192 claims were invalid as they did not meet the eligibility to apply under the Scheme, and therefore are not considered as rejected.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the NHS has commissioned research into the potential impact of (a) Covid-19 and (b) Covid-19 vaccines on the (i) diagnosis and (ii) treatment of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Vaccines must be tested in a wide range of studies, including clinical trials to establish their efficacy and safety, and have a product licence, known as a “marketing authorisation” before they can be made available for widespread use in humans. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIHR has allocated over £110 million in funding for COVID-19 vaccine research that has included consideration of vaccine safety and robust monitoring of adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines.
The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including vaccine side effects.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will meet members of the Medcan Family Foundation to discuss the availability of advanced unlicensed medicinal cannabis for those people who had been diagnosed with childhood epilepsy.
Answered by Will Quince
Health Ministers have met with families and patients and have discussed the challenges around the use of unlicensed cannabis-based medicines at great length in Parliament., Ministers are focused on galvanising research to determine if these products are safe and effective and might be funded within the National Health Service.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research and NHS England will be supporting two world-first randomised control trials on cannabinoids in the treatment of epilepsy. When further details on the trials is available, we will ensure the Medcan Family Foundation are informed.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in respect of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines have met the criteria for causation but failed because of a finding that the resulting disablement was less than 60 per cent; and in how many of those cases the disablement was (a) 50 per cent or over, (b) 40 per cent or over and (c) 25 per cent or over.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Out of all claims to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) relating to COVID-19 vaccines, there have been 157 where causation on the balance of probabilities was accepted but disablement was assessed at less than 60% and the claim was therefore rejected. Of these 157 rejected claims, 41 were 25-39%, 23 were 40-49% and 6 were 50-59%, 86 were under 25% and one was reported as under 60% disablement without a range included in the medical assessment report.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many claims have been received by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in respect of adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines; and how many received more than (a) 18, (b) 12 and (c) six months ago have not yet reached an outcome.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Since the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) started administering the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) on 1 November 2021, the VDPS has received 5,809 COVID-19 vaccine related claims. Of these claims the following have not yet received an outcome, 31 were received more than 18 months ago, 374 were received more than 12 months ago and 1,076 were received more than six months ago.
While the average claim typically takes approximately six months to investigate and process from the date that the NHSBSA requests a claimant’s medical records, this timeline varies significantly depending on the individual circumstances of the claim and in particular on the length of time it takes healthcare providers to send the claimant’s medical records to NHSBSA. Steps are being taken to continuously improve processing times.