Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Covid-19

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Tuesday 6th September 2022 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maggie Throup)]

As always, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I thank my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) for securing the debate, and I thank other hon. Members for their participation. It has been a measured and important debate. I offer my sympathies to my right hon. and learned Friend’s constituent, whom I welcome to the Public Gallery today. While my right hon. and learned Friend will understand that I cannot comment on the case itself, my thoughts are with his constituent and his family.

After clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention in the world for saving lives and promoting good health. Globally, we have one of the best and most innovative immunisation programmes, with vaccine confidence and uptake among the highest in the world. That has allowed us to get covid-19 and many other vaccine-preventable diseases under control. The UK became the first country in the world to deploy an approved covid-19 vaccine, saving countless lives and helping to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed. This week, the NHS will become the first healthcare system in the world to use next-generation bivalent covid vaccines.

All vaccines must go through a rigorous testing and development process before authorisation to ensure that they meet the strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness set by the independent medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. We are also guided by the latest clinical and scientific evidence and advice on vaccine safety and efficacy from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

Unfortunately, in some rare instances, some individuals may sadly experience harm because of vaccination. The vaccine damage payment scheme, or VDPS, provides a one-off, tax-free payment to those individuals who have been found, on the balance of probabilities, to have been harmed by a vaccine. The NHS Business Services Authority, which has a proven track record of delivering services that support the NHS, manages the operational side of the VDPS on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, following its transfer from the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2021. VDPS assessments are performed on a case-by- case basis by experienced, independent medical assessors who have undertaken specialist training in vaccine damage and disablement assessments.

Covid-19 vaccines were included in the VDPS from the very start of the vaccine roll-out in December 2020. This approach is in line with most comparable countries, with similar existing schemes in the US and other G7 countries extended to cover covid-19. It allowed those whose severe disability was found, on the balance of probabilities, to be linked to a covid-19 vaccine to receive timely support through this established, tried and tested system.

My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam mentioned the COVAX programme, which was set up as a result of the covid-19 vaccine and provides a no-fault lump-sum compensation payment in full and final settlement of any claims. The VDPS is different: while it provides a one-off lump sum, it is not compensation and is not given in full and final settlement, leaving it open to individuals to make a claim for damages through the courts. The COVAX programme is also time-limited to 30 June 2023, which is just next year.

In June 2022, the first outcomes of covid-19-related VDPS claims began to be communicated to claimants. Given the novelty of the covid-19 vaccines, the processing of claims had to wait for scientific evidence to reach a more settled position to better understand the potential relationship between the vaccines and certain adverse events.

[Sir Jeremy Wright]

Before my hon. Friend moves off international comparisons, can I ask her about the Canadian and Australian schemes that I mentioned? I take her point about COVAX providing full and final settlement, but, as I explained, that is not the case for the Australian model or the Canadian one, neither of which has either a 60% disablement requirement or a maximum sum in compensation. If my hon. Friend is able to comment on that now, I invite her to do so. If she cannot, would she write to me to explain why the Government think those are not appropriate models to follow?

[Maggie Throup]

My right hon. and learned Friend makes a good point. What I was trying to relay is that those countries that had established schemes in place extended those to the covid-19 vaccine, and where countries did not have established systems in place, they set up new ones. I will write to my right hon. and learned Friend with further details, but that is a broad outline of where we are with that.

While evidence of a causal mechanism between vaccines and injuries reported has yet to be fully established, careful monitoring by regulators and scientists around the world has enabled certain adverse events to be identified as being linked to the covid-19 vaccines. The NHSBSA works closely with the MHRA and UKHSA to ensure that concluded outcomes reflect the most up-to- date evidence on causation and the covid-19 vaccines.

My right hon. and learned Friend raised concerns that the payment of £120,000 is not sufficient to meet the needs of individuals. It is important to note that that amount is a one-off lump-sum payment, and is not designed to cover lifetime costs for those impacted. It is in addition to the Government’s support package for those with a disability or long-term health condition, which includes statutory sick pay, universal credit, employment and support allowance, attendance allowance and personal independence payment.

[Sir Jeremy Wright]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her forbearance. On the point she has just made, it is true, of course, that people have access to the benefits system. However, as I said earlier, at the moment, at least, if someone is in receipt of a payment under the VDPS, that will count against their entitlement for benefits. It is possible to deal with that if the claimant is still alive; if they are not, it is not possible. Will the Government look at how that might be remedied, as it is in relation to other types of payment under other schemes?

[Maggie Throup]

Yes, we will definitely look into that on my right hon. and learned Friend’s behalf.

The VDPS payment amount has significantly increased since the original VDPS payment of £10,000 set in 1979. It has been revised several times and, as the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) said, the current level was set in 2007. This will be kept under review as part of business-as-usual policy work. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam is aware, a successful claim to VDPS does not preclude an individual from bringing a claim for damages through the courts.

Free TV Licences: Over-75s

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Tuesday 11th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Wright]

I am afraid the hon. Lady is wrong. It is the BBC’s responsibility to decide what to do about the licence fee concession; it says so in the Digital Economy Act 2017. As it happens, this is the sequence of events: the Digital Economy Act passed and received Royal Assent before the 2017 general election. She is simply wrong to say that it is the Government’s responsibility. It is not; it is the BBC’s decision to make.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

I add my name to the list of MPs bitterly disappointed at the BBC’s reneging on its 2015 deal. I hope BBC bosses are listening to the debate and will listen to my constituents and everyone else’s, because they depend on other people paying their licence fees. If the BBC does not feel that it has a moral obligation to uphold that deal, will my right hon. and learned Friend do everything in his power to ensure that it informs every single person over the age of 75 who will lose the concession, so that they know what steps to take to avoid ending up without a TV licence?

[Jeremy Wright]

My hon. Friend makes a good point about communication. It is important that the BBC does its utmost to ensure that such changes are communicated in a responsible, accurate and helpful way so that those who are still entitled to help can receive it.

Johnston Press: Administration

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Monday 19th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Wright]

For the reasons I have just given, I will not comment on the nature of the transaction itself. The hon. Gentleman is right that over the preceding years Johnston Press has acquired a number of different titles. That, of course, is a matter for its judgment. In the process of looking at the transaction, it will have to answer for judgments and decisions it has made. At this stage, however, we must await what the various bodies I have described conclude.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

The Ilkeston Advertiser, part of the JPI Media group, is the last remaining weekly local newspaper in my constituency. What more support can my right hon. Friend offer such local titles to help them to survive, because they play such an important part in our communities?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Thursday 6th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Wright]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his kind welcome and apologise to him for the omission; he will understand that it has been a remarkable summer of sport and listing all of it would, I am sure, have antagonised Mr Speaker. The hon. Gentleman is right to point out Glasgow’s success in that regard. There has been a great deal of engagement, not least that involving the Sport Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch). We shall continue to engage as much as we can.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

Shockingly, only 17% of the tech workforce are women. I therefore welcome the recent announcement of a digital skills innovation fund of £1 million, which is there to help under-represented groups. Will the Minister outline what further measures are being taken to ensure that our digital economy is accessible and diverse?

Belhaj and Boudchar: Litigation Update

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Thursday 10th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney General]

There certainly have been other efforts made to resolve this matter. They have not been successful for a variety of different reasons. The resolution of the case on this occasion did, as I said in my statement, involve some compensation to Mrs Boudchar. I hope my hon. Friend will understand that many of the details of that settlement are confidential and I cannot discuss them in the House, but he has my assurance that, conscious as I am of the need to ensure that no further taxpayer money was spent that did not need to be spent, I would have needed to satisfy myself that compensation of this nature was appropriate. Again, I do not wish to go into the detail of what happened to Mrs Boudchar. She has said some of that herself, and it is in the public domain, but I am afraid that the necessity of compensating for what happened to her is, in my view, beyond doubt and is part of the appropriate approach that the Government now need to take.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

I welcome today’s statement and I trust that it will bring some closure to all those concerned. Will my right hon. and learned Friend indicate whether an assessment has been made, or will be made, of the impact that this settlement will have on intelligence sharing going forward?

[The Attorney General]

As I said earlier, the need to continue to share intelligence is vital. If we are to keep the British people safe from what are growing and more and more disparate threats, the flow of intelligence needs to continue, but none of that must be at the expense of the core values by which the United Kingdom lives. Therefore, we must strike the balance to which other Members have referred between continuing to deal with intelligence as my hon. Friend describes and making sure that our standards are maintained.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Wright and Maggie Throup

Thursday 10th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Attorney General]

I will certainly do that. It is important that we keep the figures under constant review. The hon. Gentleman will know that the Government are engaged in a consultation, to which we have already had some 800 responses, on the broader picture of domestic abuse. It is important that we look at both legislative and non-legislative options to make sure that across the board we are doing all we can to support victims.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that new technologies such as video evidence give victims of domestic abuse greater access to justice by helping them to come forward and challenge their abusers?

[The Attorney General]

I agree with my hon. Friend. It is important, where we can, to be sensitive to vulnerable witnesses who do not wish to face the defendant. Through the roll-out of pilots involving pre-recorded cross-examination as well as examination-in-chief, they will be able to get their part in the case over with entirely without going into the court room.