Jeremy Hunt has said no decisions have been made about how much compensation will be paid to victims of the contaminated blood scandal, with bereaved children and parents still in the dark about whether they will receive any financial support.
The chancellor was the last of five witnesses, including Rishi Sunak, to give evidence to the infected blood inquiry this week amid growing frustration that the government has not set up a compensation framework.
On Friday Hunt maintained the stance that no compensation scheme will be set up until the final inquiry report, despite a government-commissioned report by Sir Robert Francis last year detailing what it should look like. In April, the inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, said the framework should be implemented as soon as possible.
Giving evidence at a central London hotel, Hunt said: “No decisions have been made about the level of compensation or how it will be funded. We’re in very active and detailed discussions about all of that, but I can’t therefore be drawn on where that funding would come from.”
While interim compensation payments of £100,000 have been made to victims and bereaved partners in line with Francis and Langstaff’s recommendation, Hunt was pressed as to why the government was not making similar payments to bereaved children and parents as recommended by Langstaff.
He replied: “I think the straightforward answer to that question is that we haven’t made a decision on those wider groups.”
Defending the decision to wait until the end of the inquiry, Hunt said that because the sums were “potentially very large”, it was right to make a decision with the “full context”.
The urgency for compensation has been highlighted by the estimate that one person who was infected is dying in the UK every four days. There have already been an estimated 2,900 deaths (between 1970 and 2019) of patients infected after being given factor VIII blood products that were contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 80s, or after being exposed to tainted blood through transfusions or after childbirth.
Jason Evans, the founder of the Factor 8 campaign, whose father died after receiving contaminated blood, said Hunt’s “inaction was a bitter sting”.
“No new information or timetable was given to the distressed victims and mourning families entangled in the infected blood scandal,” he said. “Despite the pressing need for immediate acceptance of the inquiry’s recommendations, Hunt squandered this decisive opportunity to expedite the pursuit of justice for the aggrieved victims and their families.”
Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said people infected and affected “remain in limbo”, adding: “The government’s frustrating and evasive refusal to make a commitment to pay full compensation to all those who have suffered as a result of the biggest treatment disaster in the NHS’s history has left many in our community angry and concerned.”
