Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what account his Department takes of (a) actual and (b) potential changes in the level of disability when deciding whether the 60 per cent disablement threshold has been met for the purposes of Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

There is no minimum or maximum period after the administration of any vaccine at which the level of disability caused by that vaccine can be assessed for the purposes of a payment under the vaccine damage payment scheme (VDPS), although claims must be made on or before the date on which the disabled person turns 21 years old, or six years on from the date of the vaccination, whichever is later. The VDPS assessment of disablement looks across the whole period during which the claimant has suffered and is expected to suffer, based on all the medical evidence available, not just disablement at a particular point in time. This means that in some cases, even where there have been serious short-term symptoms, over the whole assessment period it may be that the disablement does not meet the 60% threshold.