Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme: Covid-19

Debate between Wera Hobhouse and Jeremy Wright

Tuesday 6th September 2022 Westminster Hall

[Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)]

My constituent did what she believed was right by getting vaccinated, but was one of those who had a blood clot after vaccination. The clot caused her to have a stroke and now she is unable to work. Her family are very concerned that she is going to be classed as not disabled enough to get a damages payout. Does the right hon. and learned Member agree that we need to look at these rare and few cases where people have suffered but might be falling through the net?

[Sir Jeremy Wright]

I am sorry to hear about the hon. Lady’s constituent and I agree with her. It is important that we do something differently for what she rightly says is a relatively small number of cases. If she bears with me, I will come to the exact point she makes about disablement, as it seems to be a deficiency of the scheme.

I have mentioned the VDPS and, of course, all help for those injured by vaccines is welcome. However, in my view there are three things wrong with the scheme and I will say something about each of them. The first is that it simply takes too long to pay out. The VDPS is a no-fault scheme, but it requires, not unreasonably, a causative link between vaccination and injury to be established. The problem is the time it seems to take to establish that link in the minds of the scheme’s administrators, even in cases such as that of the Scotts, where consultant opinions are clear and unequivocal. The Scotts’ application under the scheme was submitted on 3 June 2021, and was finally approved on 20 June 2022. According to the latest figures that I have—it may well be that the Minister has more up-to-date figures—there are 2,407 applications to the scheme related to covid-19 vaccines, and cases are currently being processed at the rate of 13 a month. At that rate, it would take more than 15 years to process all the cases.

Community Energy Schemes

Debate between Wera Hobhouse and Jeremy Wright

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Westminster Hall

[Wera Hobhouse]

If I were the Government, I would happily take up that offer. It is about the surplus energy that can go back into the community. If we look at the crisis in the energy market and the fact that people will probably face higher prices, anyway, the Government’s argument that there might be unintended consequences, particularly around price, has proven not to be the case. It will ultimately become cheaper if we go along the lines of community energy.

[Jeremy Wright (Kenilworth and Southam) (Con)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and for securing this debate. In dealing with the objections to the course of action that she is setting out, she will know that the Government maintain that the right to local energy already exists. Does she agree that the right way to look at that is the way I look at my right to buy a Ferrari, which already exists, but my financial obstacles to doing so are considerable, and that that is true in the case of community energy too?

[Wera Hobhouse]

I thank the right hon. and learned Gentleman for that analysis. Do we all want Ferraris? Who knows? But we probably all want community energy. The problem is indeed the cost of entry for small local suppliers, and that is what the Government need to look at. As we have already heard from the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), it does not work on the ground. When the right exists, fine, but what is the practice? We need to look at what we can do to change the practice and at what is affordable for the small companies that want to enter the market.