A photograph I took in Westminster when the Inquiry was published.
INFECTED BLOOD COMPENSATION AND THE INFECTED BLOOD SCANDAL - DYING AT PACE
A photograph I took in Westminster when the Inquiry was published.
27 April 2025
On 15 April the latest webinar with IBCA took place. The majority of those asking questions were angry and distressed at the way in which the compensation scheme is being run. Apart from the slowness of the scheme and the refusal to allow direct applications (only ‘invitations’, thereby enabling IBCA to throttle numbers), common themes were fear of death before compensation is paid, the left-to-last approach towards Hepatitis B and some cases of Hepatitis C, and the financial loss cut in half for those born after a certain date because of the introduction of new treatments (even if they never had the treatment or it failed to work).
Inadequate answers were given and the usual get-outs were given about the Regulations limiting what can be done. All of these questions should have been addressed by the Cabinet Office, the true creators of the scheme, before the regulations were made law. It seems they refuse to send a representative to the webinars and so the fallacy that IBCA was created independently continues. The webinar can be viewed on YouTube here.
Bruce Norval has told the Inverness
Courier he is ‘tired and worn-out’ by decades of campaigning and
the slow progress of the compensation scheme:
Additional statements have been published by the Infected Blood Inquiry, including
those from law firms, a second statement from David Foley and a second statement
from James Quinault.
Mr. Foley’s statement confirms ‘we are also working within timescales
as agreed with the Cabinet Office’. While mentioning legal support for
internal reviews he omits the fact that claimants, I believe, will not have
free legal advice if they take their case to the tribunal.
Mr. Quinault in response to whether victims should be able to make their own claims, ‘rather than waiting to be invited’, gave the nonsensical reply, ‘Claimants are making their own claims to the Scheme’. His reply concerning the financial disparity in value between a victim receiving compensation in 2024 and another in 2029 is ridiculous.
There is also a statement indicating that end of life invitations for compensation
will be prioritised. This does not include the elderly and even the terminally
ill will only be dealt with if they are still alive when their cohort is reached.
The new statements can be read here.
On 9 April 2025 the Infected Blood Inquiry published details of the new hearings on 7-8 May 2025. The first day will hear representatives from the infected and charities. The second day will see Sir Robert Francis, David Foley and James Quinault appear and I predict we will see a great deal of vagueness and evasion.
On the same day the BBC had the story on their website: Infected Blood Victims Losing Faith as Inquiry Hearings Restart:
Colin and Janet Smith of Newport have welcomed the reopening of the Inquiry. Their haemophiliac son, Colin Smith, was just 7 years old when he died of AIDS. I have read about them before and they suffered horribly.
At the beginning of April the Welsh Senedd condemned the Government for the ‘unacceptable’ delays to the compensation scheme. Both infected and affected attended the Senedd. Campaigner and former minister Julie Morgan said, ‘I can’t support the way in which the setting up of the compensation framework, and the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, has caused significant delays, and the delays in registering for the affected’. She also pointed out the difficulties for some accessing medical records in Wales as the University Hospital of Wales destroyed them.
29 March 2025
On 19 March the Lords debated the new Infected Blood Compensation Scheme regulations. Concerns were expressed by Baroness Brinton, Lord Patten, Baroness Finlay, Baroness Finn and Baroness Featherstone. Baroness Featherstone’s own nephew was infected and sadly died young.
Baroness Brinton also mentioned the Infected Blood Compensation: Getting it Right paper. I read the excellent Getting it Right paper produced by campaigners and charities some months ago and I don’t think there was ever an adequate Government response to all of the points it made. I don’t think people will mind if I put the paper up for anyone to read. Click here to read Infected Blood Compensation: Getting it Right.
The Commons didn’t really have a proper debate on 24 March, but instead had some sort of committee meeting. It was attended by a number of people, but the only people who really got to ask anything were Mike Wood, the MP for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire, and the former paymaster John Glen. Mr. Wood made some good points, saying at the current rate of processing, ‘That equates to about five victims paid per week since the Paymaster General’s statement last month. At that rate, it would take more than 15 years for all those infected to receive their compensation, and the draft regulations could extend compensation to perhaps 30,000 persons directly or indirectly affected by contaminated blood. It would take nearly 120 years to pay all those compensation payments at the current rate.’ Unsurprisingly the current paymaster Nick Thomas-Symonds didn’t really answer all of Mr. Wood’s questions. Mr. Glen did say something that might give some hope, when he suggested Mr. Thomas-Symonds might not be free (because of the Civil Service and the Cabinet Office) to say processing could be quicker than the timescale suggests:
‘I can say this now: it is quite frustrating when, as a Minister, you are given those dates and you know that the significant likelihood and probability is that it will be faster than that, but you are not permitted to say so, because you cannot give false hope. I know the Paymaster General is seeking to move those to the left at every opportunity, but his wonderful officials will be constraining him and giving him some concerns around doing so.’
It does make one wonder who really runs the country - the 1980s clever political comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn were always said to be true to life!
BBC Wales has broadcast a report about Tony Summers, who is 89 years old. He
and his wife Pat lost their son after he was given blood products infected with
HIV and Hepatitis C. Understandably, Mr. Summers fears they may have to wait
as long as 2029 for compensation, by which time he will be 93. If anything happens
to them the government and IBCA will pay nothing; as he says, ‘Parents
are dying. So it feels as though there's a policy [of] “if we hang on long
enough we won't have to pay that money”.’
Campaign group after campaign group advised the Cabinet Office and IBCA that
people wanted the sickest and the oldest to go fast, but despite claiming to
have consulted with the community, the IBCA board completely ignored their wishes.
Lynne Kelly from Haemophilia Wales says, ‘The infected are dying, and
when the affected die their claim dies with them so there's no claim to be made
and bit by bit, less and less people will be eligible for compensation and less
money will be paid.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q4r89gn1go
The Newscastle Chronicle describes the ‘total despair’ of campaigners Carol Grayson and Sean Cavens:
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/total-despair-north-east-infected-31220539
The High Court refused permission for a joint action by the boys from the Lord Mayor Treloar School in a strange (or convenient) ruling. The former pupils and their solicitor Des Collins plan to appeal.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrnkz4j0nno
14 March 2025
There was some welcome news today. In response to the concerns expressed by those impacted by the Infected Blood Scandal at the way the Cabinet Office and the Government have been setting up the compensation scheme, the Infected Blood Inquiry has decided to publish a new report next month.
https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/news/infected-blood-inquiry-publish-additional-report
It is possible the Inquiry may completely reopen.
In addition 27 new witness statements were published today:
https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/evidence
The witness statements from those involved in the campaign eloquently relate the lack of input they have had into the scheme and the delays that have been built into it.
Sir Brian Langstaff said:
“The distress and feelings of powerlessness expressed in many of these statements can neither be denied nor ignored. Our goal at the Inquiry is to identify whether there are practical measures that could be taken or changes made to address the concerns that have been brought to us. Our intention is for this to be a constructive process, and we are anxious not to contribute to further delay in individuals receiving compensation.”
There were also witness statements from those behind the scheme, including civil servant James Quinault, Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds and David Foley from IBCA. One thing I spotted in these statements - IBCA are not even hiring the 50 case managers a month I mentioned below, the number is just 40 per month.
The Inquiry news was widely published in print media and on ITV, Sky and Channel 4 - however, it was not reported by the BBC today.
11 March 2025
Today there was further evidence that the Government and the civil service plan to take many years to pay the Infected Blood Scandal compensation. Yesterday the Cabinet Office published the Framework Agreement between the Cabinet Office and the Infected Blood Compensation Authority. Of particular interest is p.7:
‘This profile assumes that the bulk of payments to the infected are completed by no later than 2027, and the bulk of payments to the affected are completed by no later than 2029.’
Considering we are only at the beginning of 2025, this means the living infected could be waiting the best part of three years to receive their compensation and the affected five years. As jobs at IBCA are advertised as lasting between five and seven years, this is perhaps no surprise, but many of the infected and affected do not have this kind of time left and in the case of the affected their claim will die with them. If they do live to see compensation, inflation erodes the value and in real terms the treasury saves money. Similar tactics of delay have been used with the Post Office Scandal – the case of sub-postmaster Terry Walters and his wife was widely reported last week.
The Framework Agreement with IBCA can be found here:
10 March 2025
IBCA held a Community Webinar on 27 February. Sir Robert Francis, David Foley and others were present.
More questions were answered than I expected, but many were disappointed that not all of the questions were able to be answered within the time allocated. Notably there were no questions answered about why those who have not been allowed to register on the current scheme will have to wait until last, the discrimination against those with Hepatitis B (which Sir Brian Langstaff ordered to be rectified two years ago), the lack of recognition for interferon treatment and so on.
To be fair, many of the questions we all want answered are those to do with the regulations and those at IBCA have no power to change them. It is to be regretted that the civil servants (for example Sir James Quinault) at the Cabinet Office were unwilling to engage with the individuals within the community, and answer questions honestly (I have seen waffle and evasion in written replies to letters), before the regulations were drawn up. It would have been helpful if those who have suffered ill health through treatments could have shared their experiences with the Scientific Expert Group before announcing the new regulations, as it is likely there are going to be some conditions which remain unrecognised. The government and the Cabinet Office will also now claim that IBCA is ‘arm's length’ and its running has nothing to do with them.
One thing that would get more compensation processed would be more case managers. One question expressed concern that only twenty have been employed out of the five hundred. With only fifty per month being engaged it will take ten months to reach capacity. The webinar reply suggested IBCA may never hire 500 and they are waiting to see how many cases each manager can handle. I have read elsewhere that those being interviewed for the jobs were given the impression that the full number will not be in place until February 2026. Whatever the truth of these figures, it is taking a ludicrous amount of time and there seem to be very few case managers and far too many flimflam jobs are being advertised.
A video of the webinar can be viewed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_hHnyUnO_g
There will be another webinar in April.
In other news ITV is making a documentary entitled The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned at School about the boys with haemophilia at the Lord Mayor Treloar School. Only thirty of the boys are still living. The extra compensation they have been offered for experimentation is a mere £15,000
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/media-releases/british-blood-scandal-poisoned-school
The latest compensation figures have been published. Twenty-two people have now accepted their offers, i.e. eleven more than the previous month. At eleven cases a month, perhaps we should be looking at decades...
https://ibca.org.uk/news/latest-compensation-figures-released
26 February 2025
Sadly, Mrs. Kitty Stewart (mentioned below) of Camden Town died a few days ago. Despite losing her husband and her son, this means her £500,000 compensation from the Infected Blood Compensation Authority will never be paid. She is a prime example of how the method of going slow while ‘testing’ the scheme will save the treasury millions of pounds over the next five to seven years. As her surviving son Mark (who was also infected) says, ‘If only the government had worked as fast as the cancer.’
The government should revise the current legislation and ensure the IBCA does the morally right thing so that people like Mark Stewart can receive his mother’s compensation. Perhaps Mr. Stewart’s local MP, who just happens to be the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, could make the effort to do something about it? But of course the government will claim they have the get out of jail free card that it wasn’t recommended (and I'm sure it would have been recommended if it had been known the delays would lead to situations like this) and thus more and more of the infected and affected die while they wait. As Mr. Stewart puts it in the following article, ‘It’s very clever how the Government sets this up, they don’t miss a trick’:
20 February 2025
PR Week recently reported that the Infected Blood Compensation Authority has spent £250,000 hiring a communication agency to ‘combat negative press’.
It’s probably best not to do things that will attract negative press.
A Senior Media Officer job has been advertised by the Cabinet Office to join the IBCA. Amongst other responsibilities they will ‘Land stories in a range of media outlets including print, online, radio and broadcast’. I think we can expect to see some feel-good stories about the compensation scheme in the future.
18 February 2025
An article from the BBC about the second regulations on 12 February has a couple of interesting pieces of information from government ‘internal sources’. The first estimates the number of affected claimants could be anything between 24,000 and 140,000. It’s safe to assume that if it is the latter, it’s going to be a lot more money than previously budgeted. As I mentioned above, the longer it takes to pay the more money will be saved from deaths and the result of inflation and it seems likely the scheme has been designed to take years for this reason. The last line of this article mentions more money could be allocated if needed, but the mention of 2029 shows again how long all of this is going to take: ‘The £11.8bn total set aside by ministers is meant to cover the period until the next general election is due in 2029, but could increase if large numbers come forward.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpk4xkenvo
For reference I’m adding the Autumn Budget 2024 Policy Costings, page
11 and how much they estimate paying out each year.
2024 1.08 billion
2025-2026 2.9 billion
2026-2027 2.8 billion
2027-2028 2 billion
2028-2029 1.5 billion
2029-2030 1.4 billion.
How many will have died by 2030?! With inflation, compensation given to an individual
in 2030 will be worth far less than in 2024.
An article from The Chronicle, which covers the Newcastle and Northumberland areas. A number of MPs, including Ian Lavery (who has an excellent history of supporting infected blood campaigners), the MP for Northumberland, spoke in the House of Commons to say the compensation process is taking ‘far, far, far too long’. The MP for Cardiff West Alex Barros-Curtis mentioned the case of one of his constituents who feared it would take ‘many, many years’ for compensation to be paid.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/northumberland-mp-says-infected-blood-31010838
15 February 2025
In relation to compensation being potentially lost through the ill health of the elderly affected, I have read the sad story of Mrs. Kathleen Stewart. She went through the horror of losing her husband and son to infected blood. Her surviving son Mark is also infected:
There was a follow-up story a couple of days later. Hopefully something will be done to help families like the Stewarts. It shows the importance of allowing such payments to be processed speedily and the process should be changed to allow them to be inheritable so that the terminally ill will not have to worry:
On 14 February BBC West published a story by Nathan Heath, Blood Scandal Victims ‘shout into void’ on Compensation. It highlights the case of Carolyn Challis who was infected with Hepatitis C in about 1992 while being treated for cancer. Although she will be able to apply for compensation under the new scheme she was locked out of the previous support scheme because she was infected after September 1991 and has received no interim payments. The existing scheme should have been opened up to people like her and to those with Hepatitis B. Those who have suffered the longest without any help have to wait the longest for their cases to be assessed under IBCA rules. Heath’s story also highlights those such as Kevin Roberts, who is struggling to obtain records proving he was infected as a child, and the family of Brian Smith, who was infected with HIV in the 1980s and died in 1991, and who now face a long wait for compensation.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr8qrq11ygo
I have also read an interesting exclusive article by David Hencke of Westminster Confidential about the contracts being drawn up for lawyers who are going to be working with victims while claiming compensation. The lawyers will be paid for by IBCA (which is laudable and a welcome development), but they are concerned that there are gagging clauses which will stop them discussing the process publicly:
INTRODUCTION
The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) published the latest news on Infected Blood Compensation on 10 February 2025 and announced the stages at which different groups of the infected and affected will be able to start their claim. At present there is no such process as 'starting a claim' - a tiny number of those on the existing scheme are selected for a claim to be processed and thus far only eleven have been processed and paid. Everything is run and decided by civil servants at the Cabinet Office and it is debatable that IBCA really exists in any usable form until the Civil Service has completed its shaping of the scheme.
The Scheme has been designed to last for five years - jobs at
IBCA are being advertised for five to seven years - but victims, some of whom
are terminally ill, do not have that kind of time.
In the meantime, two of the living infected with HIV and Hepatitis C (and an
unrecorded number of Hepatitis B) die every week. The position of the Cabinet
Office and the Government is that they are working at pace to pay compensation,
whereas the reality is that living victims and their affected relatives are
dying at pace. As it is not possible (and it could have been had they wanted
to do the right thing, regardless of any Inquiry recommendations) for the compensation
claims of the affected to be inherited, it is in the State's financial interest
that as many elderly widows and widowers, elderly parents, siblings and children
die before they can be processed, thus saving the Treasury millions of pounds.
While the Infected Blood Inquiry's findings were very welcome on 25 May 2024,
it took many years and should any public inquiry last longer than the Second
World War? Since the new Government was elected further time has been conveniently
wasted by splitting the Regulations in two, with the second not due to be passed
until the end of March 2025. There have been numerous meetings with charities
and others representing victims at which a lot of questions were asked, but
not many were answered with straight replies and whatever representations were
made had little impact on decisions made behind closed doors.
One injustice announced on 10 February 2025 was the ordering of claims into
groups, with those who were not allowed to register on previous schemes being
left until last. This means that those who have received nothing in the way
of support or interim payments, and who suffer equally poor health, are being
ignored and are unable to register for, potentially, years. How many of those
people and their affected relations will die waiting?
This is a page in progress which I will be regularly adding to. As polite letters, lobbying and so forth by the infected and affected seems to make little difference, I have decided to make a few points here and give links to articles and information that others might find useful - rather than fume every time I read something new!
Recommended Websites for News About the Infected Blood Scandal and the Compensation Scheme
Haemophilia Scotland https://haemophilia.scot/infected-blood-news/
The Haemophilia Society https://haemophilia.org.uk/public-inquiry/inquiry-news/the-infected-blood-inquiry-blogs/
The Hepatitis C Trust https://www.hepctrust.org.uk/news/
The IBCA website can be found here: https://ibca.org.uk/
A link to the Infected Blood Inquiry itself https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/
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