FOI-03592

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

##Request

Your request referenced FOI 03566 was received on 28 January 2026 and was answered on 9 February 2026. You can see our response to your request at the following weblink:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-03566

A further request was received on 9 February 2026 and was as follows:

##FOI-03592

<i>‘As per the FOI-03566, 83 (till 31st July, 2025) claims were awarded where the claimant was bereaved. Out of which, 78 awarded claims were associated with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
As per the new dataset (Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme COVID-19 claim volumes and outcomes - 2025 to 2026, Quarter 3, dated 27th January, 2026) there were 246 awarded claims (cumulative count).

1.	Please let me know how many of these 78 bereaved persons related to cases of death (on the balance of probability) due to AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine are associated with VITT (i.e., Vaccine-induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia) or TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome)?
2.	Please let me know how many of these 78 bereaved persons related to cases of death (on the balance of probability) due to AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine are associated with GBS (i.e., Guillain-Barré Syndrome)?
3.	Please let me know how many of these 78 bereaved persons related to cases of death (on the balance of probability) due to AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine are NOT associated with GBS and TTS/VITT (i.e., any condition other than VITT/TTS and GBS), if the number is 5 or more than 5?’</i>

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your second request on 9 February 2026. 

##Our response

The NHSBSA does hold the requested information. However, we have considered this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and are issuing a refusal notice under section 17 of the FOIA. 

This is because the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 allow us to combine request when calculating if the appropriate limit of £450 has been reached, in the following circumstances:
<ul>
<li> two or more requests for information have been made
<li> they must be from the same person, or from different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign (section 12(4)(b) of the FOIA)
<li> the requests must relate to the same or similar information
<li> they were received within a space of 60 consecutive working days
</ul>
Therefore, when determining that your request has exceeded the cost threshold, we have considered previous similar requests received by you within the previous 60 consecutive working days. We estimate that the cost of compliance with your combined would exceed the appropriate limit under section 12 of FOIA and therefore collectively exceeds 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. You can view this guidance at the following link: 

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/freedom-of-information-and-environmental-information-regulations/section-12-requests-where-the-cost-of-compliance-exceeds-the-appropriate-limit/

##FOI-03592

It would take an estimated total of 3 hours to locate the information required to answer each question (allowing one hour per question).

Three questions x 60 minutes = 180 minutes or 3 hours	

##FOI-03566

You will see from our response to your request reference FOI-03566 that some of your request was estimated to take more than then appropriate limit under section 12 of the FOIA. This was because the specific COVID-19 vaccine type and number of doses is not recorded in the claim management system. Medical records for each claim would therefore need to be individually checked for the required information.

We estimated that answering questions 2 to 4 of your request would take an estimated combined total of 20.75hrs to check each claim individually.

Therefore, the total aggregated costs over the last 60 consecutive working days is 23.75 hours. Under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act, the NHSBSA is therefore not obliged to comply with your request, and I am writing to advise that we will not be processing your request further.

##Advice and assistance

Any further requests for information made by you before 23 April 2026 would be likely to be refused for the same reason as stated above. If you make no further requests until 24 April 2026 then the full 18 hours will be available to you from that date.

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, Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, nhsbsa, vdps
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log