FOI-03744

##Request

<i>The batch number for this second jab is: PV46689, could you please check your records to see whether there has been an overall incident of death or serious harm regarding this batch.</i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 13 April 2026.  

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).  

##Our response

The NHSBSA may hold some of the requested information; however, we estimate that the cost of compliance with the request would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of the 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, extracting and checking the information.

At the medical assessment stage, we record the vaccine manufacturer against each claim, however, we do not record the vaccine batch number as it is not needed for our processing purposes. We therefore do not know the vaccine manufacturer for all claims made, only those which have received an outcome report. 
 
The vaccine batch number may be available in some of the medical records held, however it would require a manual review of each record to locate, retrieve and extract the information. 
 
Please see the following calculation which sets out the estimated cost for compliance with this request.
 
We estimate that it would take a minimum of five minutes per case to check if a batch number is available in the medical records for each of these claims. As of 31 March 2026, 23,495 claims have been received. 

Therefore, to determine if the information is held in these 23,495 claims and then to locate and extract the information this would take around 1,958 hours: 
<ul> 
<li>23,495 claims received x 5 mins = 1,957.91 hours</li>
</ul> 
This clearly exceeds the 18 hours which would accrue a cost of £450 or more, triggering the provisions of section 12 of the FOIA.
 
Please see the following link to view the section 12 in full: 
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/12

##Advice and assistance 
 
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. 

##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