Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of cases of long covid potentially attributable to covid-19 vaccines; for what reason a diagnosis code for such a condition has not been established; and how many patients are being treated with such a condition.

No specific estimate has been made. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The NIHR is supporting research into the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations and has invested £50 million in research into the long term effects of the virus. The Government has allocated £1.6 million for a programme to understand the rare condition of blood clotting with low platelets following vaccination for COVID-19. However, there is no suggestion at this time that persistent long term symptoms of COVID-19 result from vaccination, as long term symptoms are associated with having contracted the virus. The information requested on the number of people being treated is not collected centrally.