Victims of the contaminated blood scandal will begin receiving compensation before the end of the year, and some people will be entitled to more than £2.5m, the government has confirmed.
An outline of the long-awaited compensation scheme was set out in May, after the final report of the infected blood inquiry laid bare what Rishi Sunak, the then UK prime minister, called “a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”.
More than 3,000 people died and many more had their lives ruined because of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C caused by infusions of contaminated blood given between the 1970s and 1990s. Campaigners spent decades urging successive governments to take responsibility, and compensate victims and their families.
Sunak’s government commissioned the chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), Sir Robert Francis, to consult with victims and their families about the details of the compensation scheme. Francis recommended more than 70 changes to the initial proposals, most of which Keir Starmer’s government has said it will accept. These include an additional payment of £10,000 for those people who were infected as a result of “unethical research”.
Victims who were unwittingly involved in trials as children at the Lord Mayor Treloar College, Hampshire, in one of the most egregious aspects of the scandal revealed by the inquiry, are to receive an extra £15,000.
The government is expected to introduce regulations setting up the new scheme by 24 August, allowing survivors who were infected to start receiving payments before the end of the year. For those who have already died, payments will be made to their estates.
A second set of regulations covering victims’ families and others affected will follow in the coming months, with payments for these individuals to be made, starting in 2025.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the paymaster general and minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “We are going to do everything possible to deliver compensation quickly, and in many cases deliver life-changing sums to people infected and affected by this scandal. We know no amount of compensation can fully address the damage to people who suffered as a result of this scandal. This is why alongside the compensation we must drive forward the wider cultural changes to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Francis also recommended that victims be allowed to continue receiving existing support payments for the rest of their lives. The government confirmed that those people would be allowed to do so, alongside any additional compensation to which they were entitled. Campaign groups had raised concerns that some victims could end up worse off if these regular payments were halted.
Kate Burt, the chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: “We welcome the fact that the government have said the support schemes will continue for life, because people were worried about security, not only for the infected but for the bereaved as well.”
She urged the IBCA to continue engaging with the affected community as the scheme got up and running.
Total compensation payments will be made up of set amounts for different aspects of the damage wrought by the scandal, including loss of earnings and care needs. Illustrative scenarios set out by the government when the scheme was first announced showed that someone who was infected with HIV as a result of receiving contaminated blood could be entitled to up to £2,615,000.
Government sources declined to give an estimate of the likely overall cost of the compensation payments. Approximately 3,000 people have already registered with the IBCA as potential recipients.
The infected blood inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Longstaff, spent six years amassing evidence of the widespread failings that led to the scandal. Sunak made an official apology to the victims and their families when the inquiry was published.
Rachel Halford, the chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: “We’re pleased that the government has listened to the concerns of the infected blood community regarding the continuation of support payments for life, which had been a significant source of anxiety for many of our helpline callers. We are disappointed, however, that the existing support schemes have not been opened more widely, including to people given hepatitis C after 1991 and those given hepatitis B.
“The government must work transparently and openly with the infected blood community and explain its reasoning for the likely compensation levels and the basis for these figures. Thousands of lives were forever altered when people were given hepatitis C, and compensation must reflect that reality.”
