Thank you for your request for information about the following:

Request

You asked us:

‘How many claims have been approved this year to date.?’

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) received your request on 1 September 2025.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

Our response

Under Section 21 of the FOIA, we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you.

The NHSBSA actively publishes information on claims made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) on the Open Data Portal for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 claims.

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

You can find the Open Data Portal for:

COVID-19 Claims: https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/vdps-covid-19

Non-COVID-19 Claims: https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/vdps-non-covid-19

Where information is being withheld under this exemption, you will see this link in our response below.

Please see the following link to view the section 21 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/21

Information where there is a plan to publish

For data from 1 July 2025 onwards, the NHSBSA does hold the requested information which is scheduled to be published soon. However, we consider that this information is exempt from disclosure under section 22 of the FOIA. This provides an exemption from the duty to disclose information where the requested information is intended for future publication.  

For clarity, we have published data in relation to some of your request about the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme on our Open Data Portal:

• non-COVID-19 claim volumes and outcomes
• COVID-19 claim volumes and outcomes

We’re planning to add to this by publishing:

• a monthly breakdown of COVID-19 vaccine claim data on a quarterly basis
• an annual breakdown of non-COVID-19 vaccine data

Answering your request would therefore disclose the data we plan to publish in advance. We consider the advantage of releasing this information now is outweighed by the considerations in withholding the information until its planned publication. 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) guidance states that “the public authority must, at the time of the request, hold the information and intend that it or “any other person” will publish it in future. This means that it must have a “settled expectation that the information will be published at some future date”. I can confirm that at the time of your request the NHSBSA intended to make some of the information you have requested available.

Section 22 is subject to the public interest test. This means that not only does the information have to prejudice one of the purposes listed, but before the information can be withheld, the public interest in preventing that prejudice must outweigh the public interest in disclosure. 

Considerations for disclosure

• Provides transparency and accountability around claims and the administration of the VDPS.
• The public interest in the administration of the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme and vaccine uptake.

Considerations for withholding

• The information is scheduled to be published in the imminent future and on a regular basis.
• When published the information will contain quarterly data broken down by month so will provide a more detailed breakdown of the information in scope of those elements of the request. This will allow for a fuller understanding of the information to be provided.
• To publish the information in advance of the agreed publication would take more time and resource, which is not in the public interest.
• The information will be presented in the same format to allow greater understanding, clarity and transparency.

Please see the following link to view the section 22 in full: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/22

Data Queries

Please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference if you have any specific questions regarding this response; or, if you feel you may be misunderstanding or misinterpreting the information; or, if you plan on publishing the data.

Reusing the data and copyright

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and is subject to NHSBSA copyright. This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence detailed at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Should you wish to re-use the information you must include the following statement: “NHSBSA Copyright 2025” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

Failure to do so is a breach of the terms of the licence.

Information you receive which is not subject to NHSBSA Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. Please obtain their permission before reproducing any third party (non NHSBSA Copyright) information.