Information on medical exemptions for COVID-19 vaccinations: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many medical exemptions were provided to people in Scotland for the COVID 19 injections between 2020 and 2022?
2. Please advise on what grounds were the exemptions provided.
3. How many requests were denied?
4. What grounds were requests denied?

Response

Regarding questions 1 and 3:

The Scottish Government received a breakdown of medical exemptions statistics from National Services Scotland (NSS) which provides information on the number of medical exemption certificates requested and the status of the requests. These figures cover the period of the whole scheme. The medical exemption service was retired on 1 May 2022. I have included the figures below:

Requests total	330
Exemptions granted	87
Declined	219

Regarding questions 2 and 4:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. This is because The Scottish Government do not collect this information and this data may be held by National Services Scotland (NSS). Further information on how to contact NSS can be found on their website here.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.