To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been spent on (a) reviewing applications to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme and (b) reviewing cases where a patient has challenged a decision in each of the last 5 years.

The Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme transferred from the Department for Work and Pensions to the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) in November 2021. We cannot provide any costings for the scheme during the period in which it was operated by the Department for Work and Pensions. Since the NHSBSA took over operation of the scheme, the following costs have been incurred for the medical assessments of the claims:

• in the financial year 2021/22, no costs were incurred, as the claims assessment did not begin until May 2022;
• in the financial year 2022/23, the total cost of the medical assessments was £5,018,638.73;
• in the financial year 2023/24, the total cost of the medical assessments was £10,500,029.88; and
• in the current financial year, up to 1 November 2024, the total cost of the medical assessments is £9,616,394.02.

These are annual totals since we do not separate the budgets for initial assessments and mandatory reversals, the review of claims already assessed.