Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 4 report: public trust in vaccines needs rebuilding and vaccine injury compensation is inadequate
30 April 2026
Garden Court North’s inquests and public inquiries’ team represents both the Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice UK and the Covid Vaccine Injured and Bereaved Groups at the Covid Inquiry. Credit: William Barton / Shutterstock.
The Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Baroness Hallett, published her report into Module 4 on 16 April 2026, concluding that the prompt development and rollout of vaccines was “an extraordinary feat” but that governments and health services must rebuild public trust in vaccines, and improve the inadequate compensation system for those who suffered from vaccine injury.
The report found that vaccine uptake was lower in communities with greater levels of deprivation and some ethnic minority groups, which were “predictable disparities” that “must be addressed before the next pandemic”.
An underlying lack of trust in governments and health systems across the UK left some communities more susceptible to false information about the Covid vaccines, resulting in significant inequalities of vaccine uptake, the report added.
“For many, their concern centred on the safety of vaccines and possible side-effects,” Baroness Hallett said. “To some extent, this lack of confidence in Covid-19 vaccinations was a global issue, fuelled by the rapid sharing of false information online. However, it’s clear that a lack of trust and confidence in authority was also a significant contributing factor in the UK”.
‘Vaccines and Therapeutics’: five recommendations
In her report, Baroness Hallett made five key recommendations:
- Establishing an expert advisory panel
- Improving targeted communications
- Strengthening monitoring of vaccine uptake
- Reforming compensation arrangements
- Better facilitating regulatory bodies’ access to healthcare records
Moreover, the Module 4 report formally and explicitly acknowledged that a number of people suffered serious injury and death as a result of the Covid-19 vaccines, a recognition that those affected had been fighting for years to secure.
It recorded that those injured and bereaved had been left feeling stigmatised, wrongly accused of spreading misinformation, and had often been made to feel silenced and ignored, as outlined by Garden Court North’s Anna Morris KC during Module 4, when a video of her submissions to the Inquiry was incorrectly removed by YouTube as vaccine misinformation.
Baroness Hallett also found that the current Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, which compensates members of the public damage by the vaccine, is “not sufficiently supportive” and “requires urgent reform”. She recommended that the Government increases maximum payouts from the current upper limit of £120,000 to at least £200,000, applies an annual inflation-linked increase moving forward, and introduces a tiered payment system reflecting the degree of harm suffered as a result of the vaccine.
Rare praise for UK’s response to Covid-19 in Module 4 report
The report hailed the UK’s vaccine and therapeutic programmes as “two of the success stories of the pandemic”.
Ordinarily, the development and rollout of a nationwide vaccine would take between 10 to 20 years. Decades of global research and preparation in mRNA vaccine preparation and vaccine platform technologies were fundamental to the UK’s rapid Covid-19 vaccine response, the Module 4 report found, enabling the authorisation and roll-out of effective vaccines within a year of the UK’s first identified Covid-19 case.
In 2021, 132 million Covid-19 vaccinations were administered across the four nations, making it the largest vaccination programme in UK history. By June 2022, approximately 87% of the UK population aged over 12 years had been vaccinated with two doses.
The Module 4 report is the fourth of 10 reports to be published by the Covid-19 Inquiry, which finished taking evidence in March. Garden Court North’s inquests and public inquiries’ team represent the Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice (CBFFJ) UK in eight of the Inquiry’s ten modules.
For Module 4, Anna Morris KC led Christian Weaver in representing Vaccine Injured Bereaved UK, UKCVFamily, and the Scottish Vaccine Injury Group, instructed by Terry Wilcox of Hudgell Solicitors. These groups collectively represent thousands of people across the UK those injured or bereaved by the vaccine.
Additional media
UK Covid-19 Inquiry – Overall Covid vaccine programme a “success story” but public trust in vaccines must be rebuilt, Inquiry finds
UK Covid-19 Inquiry – Module 4 Report – Vaccines and Therapeutics
Hudgells Solicitors – Calls for ‘immediate action’ as Covid-19 Inquiry recognises ‘serious injuries and death’ caused by vaccines – and Government’s failure to properly support families
Broudie Jackson Canter – Covid Inquiry Publishes Fourth Report on Vaccines and Therapeutics
The Guardian – Trust in vaccines needs rebuilding despite ‘extraordinary feat’ of Covid jabs, inquiry finds
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
