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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maggie Throup)
As always, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I thank my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) for securing the debate, and I thank other hon. Members for their participation. It has been a measured and important debate. I offer my sympathies to my right hon. and learned Friend’s constituent, whom I welcome to the Public Gallery today. While my right hon. and learned Friend will understand that I cannot comment on the case itself, my thoughts are with his constituent and his family.
After clean water, vaccination is the most effective public health intervention in the world for saving lives and promoting good health. Globally, we have one of the best and most innovative immunisation programmes, with vaccine confidence and uptake among the highest in the world. That has allowed us to get covid-19 and many other vaccine-preventable diseases under control. The UK became the first country in the world to deploy an approved covid-19 vaccine, saving countless lives and helping to prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed. This week, the NHS will become the first healthcare system in the world to use next-generation bivalent covid vaccines.
All vaccines must go through a rigorous testing and development process before authorisation to ensure that they meet the strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness set by the independent medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. We are also guided by the latest clinical and scientific evidence and advice on vaccine safety and efficacy from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
Unfortunately, in some rare instances, some individuals may sadly experience harm because of vaccination. The vaccine damage payment scheme, or VDPS, provides a one-off, tax-free payment to those individuals who have been found, on the balance of probabilities, to have been harmed by a vaccine. The NHS Business Services Authority, which has a proven track record of delivering services that support the NHS, manages the operational side of the VDPS on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care, following its transfer from the Department for Work and Pensions in November 2021. VDPS assessments are performed on a case-by- case basis by experienced, independent medical assessors who have undertaken specialist training in vaccine damage and disablement assessments.
Covid-19 vaccines were included in the VDPS from the very start of the vaccine roll-out in December 2020. This approach is in line with most comparable countries, with similar existing schemes in the US and other G7 countries extended to cover covid-19. It allowed those whose severe disability was found, on the balance of probabilities, to be linked to a covid-19 vaccine to receive timely support through this established, tried and tested system.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam mentioned the COVAX programme, which was set up as a result of the covid-19 vaccine and provides a no-fault lump-sum compensation payment in full and final settlement of any claims. The VDPS is different: while it provides a one-off lump sum, it is not compensation and is not given in full and final settlement, leaving it open to individuals to make a claim for damages through the courts. The COVAX programme is also time-limited to 30 June 2023, which is just next year.
In June 2022, the first outcomes of covid-19-related VDPS claims began to be communicated to claimants. Given the novelty of the covid-19 vaccines, the processing of claims had to wait for scientific evidence to reach a more settled position to better understand the potential relationship between the vaccines and certain adverse events.
Sir Jeremy Wright
Before my hon. Friend moves off international comparisons, can I ask her about the Canadian and Australian schemes that I mentioned? I take her point about COVAX providing full and final settlement, but, as I explained, that is not the case for the Australian model or the Canadian one, neither of which has either a 60% disablement requirement or a maximum sum in compensation. If my hon. Friend is able to comment on that now, I invite her to do so. If she cannot, would she write to me to explain why the Government think those are not appropriate models to follow?
Maggie Throup
My right hon. and learned Friend makes a good point. What I was trying to relay is that those countries that had established schemes in place extended those to the covid-19 vaccine, and where countries did not have established systems in place, they set up new ones. I will write to my right hon. and learned Friend with further details, but that is a broad outline of where we are with that.
While evidence of a causal mechanism between vaccines and injuries reported has yet to be fully established, careful monitoring by regulators and scientists around the world has enabled certain adverse events to be identified as being linked to the covid-19 vaccines. The NHSBSA works closely with the MHRA and UKHSA to ensure that concluded outcomes reflect the most up-to- date evidence on causation and the covid-19 vaccines.
My right hon. and learned Friend raised concerns that the payment of £120,000 is not sufficient to meet the needs of individuals. It is important to note that that amount is a one-off lump-sum payment, and is not designed to cover lifetime costs for those impacted. It is in addition to the Government’s support package for those with a disability or long-term health condition, which includes statutory sick pay, universal credit, employment and support allowance, attendance allowance and personal independence payment.
Sir Jeremy Wright
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her forbearance. On the point she has just made, it is true, of course, that people have access to the benefits system. However, as I said earlier, at the moment, at least, if someone is in receipt of a payment under the VDPS, that will count against their entitlement for benefits. It is possible to deal with that if the claimant is still alive; if they are not, it is not possible. Will the Government look at how that might be remedied, as it is in relation to other types of payment under other schemes?
Maggie Throup
Yes, we will definitely look into that on my right hon. and learned Friend’s behalf.
The VDPS payment amount has significantly increased since the original VDPS payment of £10,000 set in 1979. It has been revised several times and, as the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne) said, the current level was set in 2007. This will be kept under review as part of business-as-usual policy work. As my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam is aware, a successful claim to VDPS does not preclude an individual from bringing a claim for damages through the courts.
Maggie Throup
I am getting a bit short of time. Lots of points have been raised and I want to make sure that I cover them all, so I will continue.
In line with the pre-action protocol should a claim be brought, where the Government are party to any claim, they will consider whether alternative dispute resolution might enable the settlement of the claim without the need to commence proceedings. The form of any ADR would depend on the details of claims that are made.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam also raised concerns about the 60% disability threshold. That threshold was lowered from the initial 80% to 60% in 2002, and it remains aligned with the definition of severe disablement set out under the DWP’s industrial injuries disablement benefit, a widely accepted test of disability. There is no evidence at present that the current level is a significant barrier; in 2019 and 2020, just one claim out of 70 was rejected due to the disability threshold not being met. We will review the latest data as covid cases are processed, but at present, evidence does not support lowering the threshold.
Working alongside NHSBSA, our focus is now on improving the service offered by VDPS by scaling up operations and improving the underlying processes. Since taking over operational responsibility in November 2021, NHSBSA has transformed the administration of the VDPS, which was previously a paper-based system. It has significantly increased its capacity to meet the demands placed on the scheme, expanding from four to 40 caseworkers and additional support staff, with further recruitment under way. This means claims can be processed more quickly, with personalised engagement with applicants through the allocation of named caseworkers.
NHSBSA awarded a new contract to an independent third-party supplier in March 2022 to provide additional medical assessment capacity to process covid-19-related claims. That has allowed for the conclusion of the first of those claims. NHSBSA is working to digitise applications and medical records, streamlining the process. A wider modernisation project is also being taken forward to digitise the application form, to create a simpler and swifter process and allow caseworkers to manage claims more efficiently. To allow more rapid assessments and processing, NHSBSA is setting time limits for the provision of medical records, with a call-back process in place. Further approaches are being looked at to secure relevant medical documents faster, as this has been a key limiting factor in processing rates.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam raised concerns about the rate of progress of VDPS. I am sure that he will appreciate, from what I have just indicated, that there have been vast improvements over recent months. As an update, NHSBSA has 2,458 live cases, of which 1,203 claims are awaiting returns on requested medical records, 181 claims are with medical assessors, and 261 claims are awaiting requests for medical records. The average claim takes around six months to investigate and process from the date NHSBSA requests the claimant’s medical records. The timeframe varies from case to case. NHSBSA has scaled up a dedicated team of caseworkers, as I have indicated, to move claims forward and update claimants on the progress of their claims.
My right hon. and learned Friend raised an interesting question about establishing a bespoke compensation scheme for covid-19 vaccines. Establishing a dedicated, stand-alone compensation scheme would risk favouring those potentially damaged by covid-19 vaccines over those damaged by other vaccines. That could create an inequality between vaccines, which could be detrimental to other vaccination programmes.
I thank my right hon. and learned Friend again for securing this important debate. Everyone has made really sensible contributions, and we will take everything that has been said into consideration. I am pleased that a number of covid-19 VDPS claims have now been concluded, offering outcomes to claimants, with further cases being progressed. Now is not the right time to review the VDPS: our focus must be on improving and scaling up its operations and continuing to process claims. We will continue to further improve the service so that outcomes can be provided sooner, giving additional support to those who qualify.