Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans she has to (a) review and (b) expand the criteria for the vaccine damage payment scheme.

All routine policy, including the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS), is reviewed on a regular basis. My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is currently considering aspects of the scheme, following recent meetings with interested stakeholders.

Separately, work is underway with the scheme’s administrator, the NHS Business Service Authority, to review processes and make administrative changes to improve the scheme within the current legislative framework. Formal consideration of whether any reforms of the VDPS are necessary will form part of Module 4 of the COVID-19 Inquiry, chaired by the Rt Hon Baroness Heather Carol Hallett DBE.