Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency

The complainant has requested information about instances of hearing loss following COVID-19 vaccination. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) provided some relevant information and indicated it was withholding other information to protect people’s privacy and because it was exempt information under section 35 of FOIA (formulation of government policy, etc). The Commissioner’s decision is as follows: On the balance of probabilities, at the time of the request MHRA did not hold the specific report the complainant requested.  However, MHRA breached section 10(1) as it did not comply with section 1(1)(a) – ie confirm to the complainant that it did not hold the requested information - within the required timescale. The Commissioner does not require MHRA to take any corrective steps.