Infected blood scandal compensation payments to begin this year

THE first payments in a long-awaited scheme to provide compensation to victims of the infected blood scandal will take place before the end of the year, with some receiving more than £2 million.

Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds pledged to "move quickly to deliver compensation that has been so cruelly delayed."

Writing in the Sunday Express, he said: "It will be a landmark moment when the first victims receive compensation after decades of pain, fighting and disappointment."

But campaigners urged the Government to speed up payments, warning that victims had waited 40 years for justice.

Thousands of people contracted HIV, hepatitis or both after receiving contaminated blood, blood products and tissue between the 1970s and late 1990s. The scandal was highlighted by a Sunday Express campaign.

More than £1 billion has already been paid out in interim compensation but the full scheme is still not up and running despite a public inquiry led by judge Sir Brian Langstaff concluding in April 2023 that it should be "set up now".

Mr Thomas-Symonds will present a motion to the Commons on Wednesday allowing payments to be made.

He said: "The infected blood scandal - which saw thousands of people given infected blood or blood products throughout the 1970s and 1980s - is one of the gravest injustices in our national history. "

He added: "By putting this compensation scheme into law, the Government is legally bound to carry out the scheme, and deliver compensation.

"While all this is important, it means nothing if people don't get their compensation quickly and efficiently. We are determined to get money into people's pockets, building on the interim payments that have already been made."

Andy Evans, chair of campaign group Tainted Blood which represents more than 2,000 victims, said the Government and the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) should speed up payments.

He said: "The infected and very many of the affected such as parents and widows are getting older and their hopes were raised after Sir Brian Langstaff's admirable report and recognition of what we have all suffered, now only to face more delay and apparent extra administrative burdens of the application process, which is only now being tested.

"We recognise that this will have significant budget implications for the Government, but it is one that successive governments have shied away from.

"We are working as closely as possible with the IBCA to help and welcome the good communications finally now emerging, but urge expediency at long last."