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Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 Statutory Sum Order 2007

I hesitate to speculate on what might be in the gracious Speech for the next Session of Parliament. I emphasise that under both the current Government and the previous Government, it has been uprated on a regular basis. To put it in context, if the statutory sum of £10,000 in 1979 had been upgraded annually, it would now be worth £34,000. So the process that has taken place has done a good deal more for recipients than an annual uprating would have achieved. Both noble Lords asked about the number of applications that fail. The majority of claims to the payment scheme are unsuccessful because the vaccination did not cause the disability. In considering cases, medical advisers have regard to whether informed medical opinion suggests that there may be a causal link between the claimed adverse event and vaccination. Each claim is given individual consideration and factors taken into account include the nature and severity of the adverse event, its temporal relationship to vaccination, the person's previous medical developmental history and any relevant family condition for which the subject of a claim had a predisposition. There has been no recent review of the claims process. To give some statistics, in 2006-07, there were four awards; in the year before, five; the year before, four; and the year before that, five. The number of claims for that period were, in 2006-07, 60; 106 the previous year; 111 the year before that; 165 the year before that; and 417 the year before that—that was associated with the change in some of the rules. There is an analysis, which I should be very happy to share with noble Lords. I have a tabulation that sets out the reasons why each of the claims was disallowed. If we look at the total number of claims since 1977-78, of 4,489, 3,645 of them were not accepted because causation was not accepted. I am happy to share that tabulation and provide a copy of it. The claim form is about 10 pages long and it is suggested that it is quite straightforward to complete. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, asked: why not introduce a sliding scale of disability? A sliding scale of disability and payments would run counter to the scheme’s principle of providing a straightforward single payment for those whom the Secretary of State is satisfied are severely disabled as a result of vaccination. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, also talked about the increased cost that families with severely disabled children face. That is absolutely right, but there is a range of other government programmes that provide for the needs of disabled people and disabled children: the disability living allowance, the carers’ allowance, incapacity benefit and the income-related benefits and premiums. Both noble Lords mentioned the pharmaceutical industry and asked why it should not contribute. As requested by some lobby groups, we have broached the subject but we have not been able to find a mutually satisfactory basis for establishing such a fund. We should not allow the pursuit of that to hold up what we are doing with the order, but neither do I think that we should give up on it. I hope that I have dealt with the points raised, but if noble Lords have any residual comments I shall be happy to try to answer them. The routine childhood immunisation programme has been a great success, as the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, said. Immunisation remains the safest way for parents to protect their children against these diseases. However, we must continue to recognise the very small number of children and their families who suffer from the effects of vaccine damage. It is seven years since the previous increase to the statutory sum. This proposal maintains the Government’s commitment to those who become severely disabled as a result of vaccination by restoring the value of the statutory sum to more than the equivalent of its 2000 value. I commend the order to the Committee. On Question, Motion agreed to.