Explanatory note

These Regulations amend the Vaccine Damage Payments Regulations 1979 by adding a new regulation which prescribes the circumstances in which the provisions of the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979 are to have effect with respect to a person who is severely disabled as a result of contracting a disease through contact with a third person who was vaccinated against it as if the vaccination had been given to him and the disablement resulted from it. The circumstances prescribed are that the person suffering the disablement has been in close physical contact with a person who has been vaccinated against poliomyelitis with orally administered vaccine within a period of sixty days beginning with the fourth day immediately following the vaccination. The disabled person must also have been, within the sixty day period, either looking after the vaccinated person or himself being looked after together with the vaccinated person.