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.

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.