The bereaved parents and children of victims of the tainted blood scandal should receive immediate £100,000 interim compensation payments, an inquiry has said.
Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry Sir Brian Langstaff has today called for the families who lost loved ones to receive the funds to ‘alleviate immediate suffering’.
He said an interim payment scheme launched last October – which saw £400million awarded to infected individuals and bereaved spouses – should be extended to include the wider family.
Sir Brian said he was recommending further interim compensation payments ‘to recognise the deaths of people who have so far gone unrecognised’.
‘I believe this is necessary to alleviate immediate suffering. It is a fact that around 380 children with bleeding disorders were infected with HIV. Some of them died in childhood.
‘But their parents have never received compensation.
‘Children who were orphaned as a result of infections transmitted by blood transfusions and blood products have never had their losses recognised.’ It is estimated at least 3,500 deaths have so far gone unrecognised and their surviving parents or children could be eligible.
Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry Sir Brian Langstaff has called for the families who lost loved ones to receive the funds
Sir Brian said a longer term compensation plan should draw inspiration from a scheme set up in the wake of 9/11 which paid promptly paid out up to £7billion to victims.
He said the parents, siblings, children as well close relatives and friends of living or deceased victims should be for compensation eligible if their mental, physical or emotional health was impacted.
The inquiry team was not able to put a figure on how many more people or their families could be eligible for compensation but payouts could run into billions.
The scandal which saw thousands of people were infected with HIV and hepatitis via contaminated blood between 1970 and 1991 has been described as the ‘worst treatment scandal in NHS history’.
Sir Brian said that he was taking the unusual step of publishing the recommendation ahead of the publication of his full report into the scandal so that victims would not face any more delays.
‘I could not in conscience add to the decades-long delays many of you have already experienced due to failures to recognise the depth of your losses,’ he said in his statement.
He said that ‘wrongs were done at individual, collective and systemic levels’.
Michelle Tolley, from Norfolk, who has been living with hepatitis C and cirrhosis for 25 years and runs a support group for 500 people broke down in tears after watching the video message from Sir Brian
Gary Webster, a former pupil of Lord Mayor Treloar College, giving evidence at the Infected Blood Inquiry last year
Sir Brian said that ‘not only do the infections themselves and their consequences merit compensation, but so too do the wrongs done by authority, whose response served to compound people’s suffering’.
He said: ‘This has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, and we have much to learn as a nation to help ensure that people never suffer in a similar way again. I will be setting that out in my full report.’ The inquiry’s second interim report on compensation also made a series of recommendations including a ‘bespoke’ psychological support service in England for victims and their loved one.
Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: ‘After decades of delay and denial by successive governments, today’s report has exposed the unparalleled scale of suffering and loss endured as a result of the contaminated blood scandal.
‘The case for swift and meaningful compensation is now beyond doubt and we welcome the recommendation that everyone, including bereaved parents and children, should receive compensation as soon as possible.
‘This report highlights the huge psychosocial harm caused by government’s repeated failure to acknowledge wrongdoing.
‘Too much time has been wasted by politicians intent on denying the consequences of this NHS disaster.
‘Now Government must atone for its shameful avoidance of this scandal and pay compensation to all those whose lives have been devastated.
‘Money cannot compensate for a lost future, the death of a child, a parent, a partner, or a sibling. Nor can it resurrect careers, marriages and shattered mental and physical health. But compensation is the first step towards the Government accepting blame, acknowledging loss and, crucially, an apology which explains what went wrong.’
Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, added: ‘This is a clear call to action for the Government, which lays out the strong moral case for them to accept and compensate for the harm done to everyone affected by the contaminated blood scandal.’
The inquiry was established in 2017 to examine how thousands of patients in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
About 2,400 people died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
Thousands of adults and approximately 380 children received infected blood products or transfusions during treatment by the NHS, the inquiry has heard.
Many had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and were given injections of the US product Factor VIII.
The inquiry has been gathering evidence and holding hearings for four and a half years.
The last day of hearings took place on February 3 and it is expected that the final report will be published in the autumn.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The infected blood scandal should never have happened.
‘Sir Brian Langstaff’s interim report will help the UK Government and devolved administrations to meet our shared objective to be able to respond quickly when the inquiry’s final report is published in the autumn.
‘We thank the chair and the inquiry team for this detailed interim report and the Government is continuing preparations for responding to the final report when it is published.’ The full report is expected to be published in October.
The Government will wait for the full report into the infected blood scandal before considering whether to extend the compensation scheme for victims, the Prime Minister has said.
Asked by broadcasters in Peterborough whether he would extend the compensation scheme as recommended by the inquiry’s chairman, Rishi Sunak said: ‘I am grateful to the work of the independent committee for their interim recommendations – not just to the Government – that will help us and the devolved administrations ensure that we can respond appropriately to the full report when it comes.’
He added: ‘In the interim, we have made available payments of about £100,000 for those who have been infected or bereaved.
‘We will of course wait to find the full report when it comes, and then take forward recommendations as we can and will consider them then.’
