Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of legal protection for patients who have suffered from complications after receiving a covid-19 vaccination.

No specific assessment has been made.

Where individuals believe they have come to avoidable harm in relation to a vaccine, they could pursue a compensation claim against the producers of the vaccine.

While not constituting legal protection, the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) was established in 1979, to help ease the burden on those individuals where, on very rare occasions, vaccination against certain diseases has caused severe disablement. COVID-19 was added to the scheme in 2020. The Scheme provides a one-off, tax-free, lump sum to those who are severely disabled as a result of a vaccination. The VDPS is not a compensation scheme and making a claim will not prevent someone from pursuing a compensation claim.