FOI-03393

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

<strong>Request</strong>

You asked us:<br>
<br>
<i>‘I wish to know <br>
1.	how many people have been offered compensation under your watch. The answer is none. You find every excuse not to pay out. [Requester's details redacted]. <br>
2.	Who employs you and why, when you do nothing for the bereaved and in my case seriously injured.’</i><br>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 20 November 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). We have numbered your questions so it is clear that we’ve answered each question in our response below.

<strong>Our response</strong>

<strong>Question 1 – How many people have been offered compensation under your watch</strong>

I am writing to advise you that the information you requested is not held by the NHSBSA. This is because the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) is not a compensation scheme, which means that claimants can still seek damages in court.

The VDPS provides a one-off tax-free payment, which is currently £120,000, to successful applicants where, on the balance of probabilities, a vaccine has caused severe disablement. 

Information on how many claimants have received a Vaccine Damage Payment is available on our open data portal data portal:

COVID-19 vaccine claims: https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/vdps-covid-19 <br>
Non-COVID-19 vaccine claims: https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/vdps-non-covid-19 

<strong>Question 2 - Who employs you and why, when you do nothing for the bereaved and in my case seriously injured.</strong>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) administers the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). 

The NHSBSA is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the scheme on behalf of DHSC, including:
<ul>
<li>handling claims in line with DHSC’s rules for the scheme
<li>working with healthcare providers to obtain medical records from them so claims can be progressed to the medical assessment stage
<li>managing the contract for the third party medical assessment supplier
<li>providing updates to claimants
</ul>
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is responsible for the scheme’s rules, including:
<ul>
<li>the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979
<li>the payment amount
<li>the disablement criteria
</ul>
The government is responsible for longer-term support. For example, financial help for those who are disabled. You can read more about this at: https://www.gov.uk/financial-help-disabled/disability-and-sickness-benefits.

<strong>Data Queries</strong>

Please contact <a href=mailto:foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>  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.

<strong>Reusing the data and copyright</strong>

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact <a href=mailto:communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk>communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk</a>. 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:<br>
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.


Tags: NHSBSA corporate, Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, nhsbsa, vdps
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log