§ Mr. Thorntonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what date has been set for the review tribunals to commence work on the appeals of applicants who have had their claims for payment, under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979, rejected; where the hearings will be held; and what will be the approximate date for the last case to be heard.
§ Sir George YoungVaccine damage tribunals have been established at the following centres
Cardiff, London, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh.The tribunal at Cardiff met for the first time on 23 July; tribunals at the other centres named will be holding their first sessions shortly. The question of setting up tribunals at other places is under consideration.
A total of 666 claimants have so far asked for their cases to be reviewed by the tribunals, and it is hoped that a substantial proportion of these cases will have been dealt with by the end of this year.
§ Mr. Thorntonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) of those applications for payment under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 214W which were successful, what was the breakdown of each type of vaccine held to be responsible;
(2) of those applications for payment under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 which have been decided, how many were successful and how many were rejected;
(3) how many of the applications made for payment under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 have been decided;
(4) how many applications were made for payments under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979.
§ Sir George YoungThe information is given in the following table:
VACCINE DAMAGE PAYMENTS ACT 1979 Position at 21 July 1979 1. Claims received 2,471 2. Claims initially determined of which— 1,790 (a) payment due 247 (b) payment not due because the Secretary of State is not satisfied that— (i) the statutory conditions in section 2 are fulfilled 60 (ii) the disabled person was severely disabled as a result of vaccination 1,483 There is a right to ask for a review against the decisions as at (b)(ii) and, on this aspect, I would refer my hon. Friend to my reply to his other question today.
3. Analysis of cases under 2(a) by vaccine in question.
Vaccines Diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough 117 Diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and poliomyelitis 46 Diphtheria and whooping cough 9 Whooping cough 3 Diphtheria 1 Diphtheria, tetanus and poliomyelitis 1 Poliomyelitis 10 Measles 12 Rubella 1 Smallpox 47 247