Matt Hancock has said compensation will be paid to people people infected by contaminated blood products and their relatives if is recommended by the public inquiry into the scandal.
Appearing at the inquiry on Friday, the health secretary agreed the government had a “moral responsibility” to address what had happened.
As many as 30,000 people became severely ill after being given factor VIII blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 80s. Others were exposed to tainted blood through transfusions or after childbirth. On average one person is dying every four days, with approximately 3,000 haemophiliacs having died to date.
The government set up a support scheme offering ex-gratia payments without any admission of liability, but has been urged to create a compensation scheme.
On Thursday, ahead of Hancock’s appearance at the inquiry, the paymaster general, Penny Mordaunt, announced the appointment of Sir Robert Francis QC to examine options for a framework for compensation before the inquiry reports its findings.
The health secretary told the inquiry: “I respect the process of the inquiry and I will respect its recommendations, and should the inquiry’s recommendations point to compensation, then of course we will pay compensation, and Sir Robert Francis’s review on compensation is there in order that the government will be able to respond quickly to that.
“But it would be wrong to pre-empt the findings of the inquiry on that basis by me giving a policy recommendation in the middle of it.”
The infected blood inquiry will investigate how thousands of people with the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia were given blood products by the NHS which were contaminated with the HIV virus and hepatitis C.
At least 4,689 British haemophiliacs are thought to have been treated with infected blood in the 1970s and 80s. So far, half have died.
The inquiry will try to figure out the exact number of people who have been infected, examine the impact the infection had on people’s lives, investigate whether there was any attempts to conceal details of what happened, and identify any individual responsibilities as well as systemic failures.
Asked why parents of children who had died as a result of infected blood products or children whose parents had died were not covered by the support scheme, he suggested this could change if the inquiry recommended they should receive compensation.
He sought to address concerns that the support scheme could be withdrawn by insisting that it was “permanent”.
But the inquiry heard there were no plans to extend the scheme to people infected with hepatitis B and those infected with hepatitis C after September 1991.
The infected products, supplied by the NHS, came from blood from US prisoners and drug addicts, who were paid for their donations. The imported products were inadequately screened.
Hancock said: ‘“Even though I obviously wasn’t involved in the 70s and 80s … in my role as secretary of state, I acknowledge the pain and the suffering not only of the initial … errors that led to this harm on people’s lives, but also a sense that redress wasn’t properly considered and that people felt their voices weren’t heard, and I want to make sure those voices are heard.”
Gavin Sherrington-Blane, 41, was infected with hepatitis C when he was four weeks old after being wrongly diagnosed as haemophiliac and given contaminated factor VIII.
After watching Hancock at the inquiry, he said there was “huge disappointment” that there had been no commitment to payments for parents who had lost children, and vice versa, and also urged the government to agree to compensation immediately.
“The evidence that’s been heard in this inquiry is powerful, it’s damning across the board,” he said. “So they could move on this now and it’s the right thing to do. There are people dying every week from this and yet we have more waiting for a decision and action to be taken – it’s just not good enough.”
