Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will extend or pause applicable limitation periods applying to Civil claims for compensation for loss arising from covid-19 vaccinations to take into account delays being experienced in making claims under the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme.

There are currently no plans to extend or pause the limitation periods that would apply to claims relating to COVID-19 vaccines.

The Department has worked closely with the NHS Business Services Authority to transform the administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in order to process claims more quickly and reduce delays. This includes increasing the number of administrative staff, modernising processes, working to improve the return rate of medical records, and introducing a sampling approach for quality assurance of medical assessments.