FOI 27698

Thank you for your request for information about the following:

‘This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, regarding the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

In relation to all Covid-19 vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, Asta Zeneca etc) please let me have the answers to the following questions, to the most recent available date:

(1) How many claims have been made?
also
(2) How many payments have been made?

Your answers to (1) and (2) should each be further broken down as follows:

(a) Death - and further subdivided into causes e.g. vascular, cardiac etc

(b) Damage/adverse effect -  and further subdivided into type as in (a)’

Your request was received on 8th September 2022 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

##Response

All responses are as of 23 September 2022 and relate to COVID-19 vaccination.

1.	2,691 claims have been submitted in relation to a COVID-19 vaccine.

a.	231 are claims in which the vaccinated person is deceased.
b.	The claim form asks the claimant to tell us what happened after the vaccination. It is at the medical assessment stage that independent medical assessors provide a description of the assessed conditions they have been able to identify from the claimant's medical records. Once the claim is assessed, the reason for the assessment outcome may be different to the reason given by the claimant for the initial claim. 

2.	21 claimants have been notified they are entitled to a Vaccine Damage Payment. 

a.	12 are claims in which the vaccinated person is deceased. The conditions assessed for these 12 claims are:

•	Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia/ cerebral venous sinus thrombosis 

•	Vaccine induced vasculitis

b.	The conditions assessed for the remaining nine claims are: 

•	Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia/ cerebral venous sinus thrombosis

•	Guillain-Barré syndrome  

###Fewer than 5 

Please be aware that for question 2 I have decided not to release the exact numbers for each condition. This is because one of the conditions in each question is less than five, therefore you could then deduce this withheld number from the other category total.

As a result, the claimants could be identified, when combined with other information that may be in the public domain or reasonably available. Online communities exist for those adversely affected by vaccines they have received. This further increases the likelihood that those may be identified by disclosure of this information.

This information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3A (a) of the Freedom of Information Act.

This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a)	it is not fair to disclose claimant personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress.
b)	these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of the claimant.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

##Breach of Patient confidentiality

Please note that the identification of claimants is also a breach of the common law duty of confidence.  A claimant who has been identified could make a claim against the NHSBSA or yourself for the disclosure of the confidential information.

The information requested is therefore being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act. 

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/41 

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-27694 

##Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data please contact nhsbsa.foirequests@nhs.net ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact nhsbsa.communicationsteam@nhs.net. 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 2022” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

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: VDPS, Vaccine Damage Payments
Organization: Freedom of Information Disclosure Log