Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was between submissions and decisions by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme for (a) general claims and (b) mandatory reversals in each year between 2019 and 2023.

The Department of Health and Social Care requested the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) transfer to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) from the Department for Work and Pensions from 1 November 2021. The average claim waiting times before November 2021 has therefore been calculated based on the data transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions to NHSBSA.

Of the claims concluded in 2019, the average number of days for an outcome to be communicated to the claimant was 120. It was 159 days for claims concluded in 2020, 306 days in 2021, 288 days in 2022, and 298 days in 2023.

For mandatory reversals concluded in each year, the average number of days for an outcome to be communicated to the claimant was 75 in 2019, 67 in 2020, 103 in 2021, and 182 in 2023. There were no mandatory reversal requests that reached an outcome in 2022.