Infected Blood Inquiry: Government Response

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Campbell of Surbiton (CB)]

My Lords, I begin by declaring an interest as the widow of Graham Ingleson, who died at the age of 33 in 1993.

I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement and for meeting me before the Easter Recess. I know that she is genuinely committed to ensuring that the victims get justice, and that is welcome. However, she will not be surprised when I say that the Statement that was made in the House last week is wanting. I do not feel that it reflects the deep frustration and disappointment of the infected blood community at the shocking lack of progress. Therefore, in the light of their concerns, Sir Brian Langstaff took the unprecedented step of reopening the inquiry two weeks ago to hear why the compensation scheme is failing the community so profoundly. Does the Minister agree that the chronic delays in processing claims are lamentable? Only 160 or so of the 30,000 known to be affected received payment in the last year, and people are dying at the rate of one or two a week. Will the Government consider quarterly targets for IBCA to speed up claims settlements?

The Statement rightly recognises the devastating impact of this scandal. Does the Minister accept that the bureaucratic nature of the scheme exacerbates the distress of the community as they relive their trauma?

It is clear from the recent hearings that genuine engagement with the community is just not happening. Can the Minister reassure the House that the Government will address this with IBCA urgently? A

“publicly accessible dashboard in due course”

is not good enough.

Lastly, the Prime Minister said a year ago, “Politics itself failed you”. Will the Minister acknowledge that the paramount need is to ensure that politics does not repeat itself? In the words of the CEO of the Haemophilia Society:

“The inquiry gave us the truth, but we’re still waiting for justice”.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness for coming in today to participate in the debate. As she is a member of the affected community, I know of the strain of leadership that she has had to face as people look to her for answers. She is a tenacious woman and a dedicated campaigner, but that still requires a huge amount of inner strength, and I thank her for what she is doing for the community.

With regard to the specific points, obviously several were raised and I will reflect on Hansard. But the noble Baroness is absolutely right: politics failed the infected blood community and we need to make sure that that does not happen again, both for this community and any other community that is facing issues where the state has let them down. I truly believe that politics is a force for good in society; we need to make sure that it is. I hope that the noble Baroness will soon be meeting with the Minister for the Cabinet Office to discuss next steps, and I hope both to be present and to make sure that she makes some of these recommendations forcefully, as I know she will. We will reflect on them as we also reflect on the findings of the second phase of the inquiry.