§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when he intends to announce a decision on the request made by the right hon. Member for Stoke on Trent, South for a judical inquiry into whooping cough vaccination and brain damage.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI regret that I am not yet in a position to consider this request because of other current litigation on this matter. I have written to the right hon. Member explaining the reason in more detail.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what analysis there has been of the vaccine damage payment cases which would indicate the incidence per hundred thousand vaccinations of damage such as to cause a payment.
771W
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have been asked to repy. During the five years 1983 to 1988, the number of vaccine damage awards made averaged 17 per year, and many of these related to vaccinations performed in earlier years. Almost all of the awards were on account of vaccinations performed under the childhood vaccination programme.
I understand from the Department of Health that over the same period, an average of around 500,000 children per year have completed the primary courses of vaccination against each of diptheria, tetanus and polio, and 420,000 againts whooping cough; 440,000 have been vaccinated against measles and 300,000 against rubella. Since the primary course for diptheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough is three doses, this means that around 7 million doses of vaccine are administered to children each year in the primary vaccination programme. A further 2.5 million reinforcing doses are also administered.
The incidence of vaccine damage such as to cause an award to be made is therefore less than 2 per million doses of vaccine administered.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many vaccine damage payments were made in 1988; and if he will categorise these according to the age of the child, when the vaccination took place, the year of the vaccination and the nature of the vaccination.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have been asked to reply.
Four payments were awarded in 1988 under the provision of the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979. Details are in the table.
Vaccine damage Payments scheme Awards made in 1988 by age of child at date of vaccination Year of vaccination and type of vaccination Age at date of vaccination (months) Year vaccination was given Type of vaccination cited of claim form 1. 3–6 1959 Triple/polio 2. 3–6 1986 Polio 3. 6–9 1972 Pertussis 4. 6–9 1980 Pertussis
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if the application form for a vaccine damage payment asks for(a) the date of vaccination alleged to have caused the damage, (b) the type of vaccination and (c) the age of the person when the vaccination took place.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have been asked to reply.
The vaccine damage payment claim form asks for the date of vaccination, the type of vaccination received and the date of birth of the vaccinated person. From this information, the age of the vaccinated person when the vaccination took place can be determined.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many claims for vaccine damage payments have been made in each year since the scheme began; and what proportion in each year resulted in a payment.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not available. The information which is available is in the table. 772W
Vaccine damage payments scheme Claims received and awards made in each year since the scheme began Year Claims received Awards made1 19782 1,988 — 1979 551 349 1980 131 255 1981 72 74 1982 89 43 1983 93 42 1984 156 29 1985 76 26 1986 78 15 1987 66 10 1988 39 4 19893 9 — 1 Awards recorded for a particular year may be the outcome of claims made in earlier years. To analyse for each year's claims the number that were eventually successful would be disproportionately costly. 2 Although the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 took effect from 22 March 1979, claims were invited when the scheme was announced in 1978. 3 To 28 February 1989.
§ Mr. AshleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if there has been any change in his departmental policy regarding the payment of vaccine damage payments following the case of Lovedayv. Renton.
§ Mr. Peter LloydI have been asked to reply.
There has been no change in our policy of making a vaccine damage payment in every case where the qualifying criteria are satisfied. Whether these criteria are satisfied where pertussis vaccine is involved remains a matter for decision in each individual case.