Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the capacity to deliver the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme to ensure there are no delays to payments of that scheme.

Following the transfer of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme’s administrative function to the NHS Business Services Authority in November 2021, the NHS Business Services Authority has increased the size of team processing these claims. The NHS Business Services Authority has procured a new medical assessment contract, awarded on 21 March 2022. The supplier is establishing its systems and staff to commence assessments as soon as possible. Medical assessments for each claim will be undertaken once the NHS Business Services Authority receives full medical records from a claimant’s general practitioner, medical providers, local authorities and other relevant healthcare providers. The NHS Business Services Authority is now digitising and modernising the claimants’ process, including an online application.