FOI-03633

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

##Request

You asked us:
<ul><i>
<li>‘The assessor’s medical specialty, qualifications, and relevant clinical experience. 
<li>Any epidemiological studies, research papers, policy guidance, or clinical frameworks relied upon in concluding that causation was not established.’</ul></i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 23 February 2026.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

##Our response

The following response does not relate to a specific claim or claimant. This request is being answered on a general basis as requests under FOIA are requester-blind, therefore the identity of the requester is not taken into account when considering a request for information under FOIA.

##Question 1 - The assessor’s medical specialty, qualifications, and relevant clinical experience. 

I can confirm that the NHSBSA does not hold the requested information. The NHSBSA contracts a third-party supplier to carry out medical assessments for the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS). As such the official job role or title of the medical assessors is held by the third-party supplier and not the NHSBSA.

Similarly, the NHSBSA does not hold the medical qualifications and experience of the medical assessor as they are the responsibility of the third-party medical assessment supplier. The contract with our supplier does not require them to tell us this information. Additionally, the NHSBSA does not hold where the medical training was completed or obtained.

I hope, however, that the following information provides reassurance on this point. The contract requires all assessments carried out are to be undertaken by suitably qualified and experienced Registered Medical Practitioners. This includes being registered on the UK General Medical Council with a licence to practise and meet or exceed the following requirements:
<ul>
<li>They are a Registered Medical Practitioner with at least five years’ post graduate experience, and
<li>They have experience of the performance of the medical and/or disability assessment, addressing questions of causation and impact in the context of legislative or policy requirements to assist the decision maker.</ul>

##Question 2 - Any epidemiological studies, research papers, policy guidance, or clinical frameworks relied upon in concluding that causation was not established.

The NHSBSA may hold some the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of FOIA.   

We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the non-central Government limit of £450. The limit has been specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the NHSBSA holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  

Please see the following calculation which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request:

To collate all the information that is used in all outcome reports would take a significant amount of time as it varies depending on the condition claimed and what was available at the time of the assessment.

All claims are assessed on a case-by-case basis by a medical assessor. All medical assessors are General Medical Council (GMC) registered doctors with a licence to practise and at least five years' experience. 
 
All relevant information is considered to make a complete and fair assessment. The medical assessor thoroughly considers: 
<ul>
<li>information given on the claim form 
<li>any further evidence submitted 
<li>any pre-existing conditions that are not caused by the vaccine 
<li>medical records (if required) 
<li>clinical research 
<li>epidemiological evidence 
<li>the current consensus of expert medical opinion</ul>
 
The medical assessor will advise if a Vaccine Damage Payment should be made, based on the government’s rules for the scheme. 
 
Each claimant receives a letter telling them the medical assessor’s decision and a copy of the comprehensive medical assessment report. This report is written by the medical assessor and explains how they reached their decision.

The NHSBSA has made available in our response to FOI 02581 training materials which it has provided to medical assessors based on the feedback it has provided during the IQA process. 

You can view our response and this information by clicking the weblink below and scrolling down to the end of the page:
https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-02581

Please be advised that due to the way that the information is held by the NHSBSA, it is not possible to submit a refined request under the appropriate limit.

Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12

##Data Queries

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.

##Reusing the data and copyright

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 2026” 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, VDPS, Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, nhsbsa
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log