Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government will be able to provide an update on waiting times for compensation for those affected by the infected blood scandal.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). The IBCA Framework Document, published in March 2025, sets out the timelines agreed between IBCA and Cabinet Office; namely for the bulk of infected people to be paid no later than the end of next year and the bulk of affected people to be paid no later than the end of 2029. The claims of infected people include the estates of infected people who have sadly passed away.
The Government has been clear these dates should not be viewed as targets for delivery, but rather ‘backstops’. These timescales have been agreed with IBCA, to ensure that the door is kept open for those who have not yet identified themselves as being infected or affected.
IBCA has now opened the service for the first claims from infected people who were never compensated, for deceased infected people, and for living affected people. As with the first cohort of people making a claim, IBCA must now build a service for each of these cohorts which allows them to confirm an infection before a claim begins, check the identity of each person claiming, and ensure all the necessary legal and financial support is in place for anyone who wishes to use it. This approach means that the numbers will initially be lower, but the Government expects that, as with the first group, those numbers will rise exponentially as progress is made.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that people who suffered significant harm as a result of interferon treatment through contaminated blood products are compensated under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The Government accepted the Inquiry’s recommendation to introduce a new, higher level of award for infected people who were treated with interferon. The new Level 2B infection severity band will provide more core compensation through the Financial Loss and Care awards for the full two years after treatment. This uplifted award will be available to anyone treated with interferon who would otherwise be receiving a Level 2 award. Following the public consultation on the infected blood compensation scheme, we will also ensure that people who received more than one round of interferon treatment will be properly compensated for each of these rounds.
The Technical Expert Group advised that where people do experience longer term impacts of interferon treatment, the scheme should compensate for the impact on a person’s life. That is why, if someone has experienced long-term impacts following interferon treatment that have affected their ability to work or their need for care, they may be eligible for additional compensation through the Special Category Mechanism Severe Health Condition award. This approach ensures that those with long term side effects receive additional financial support.
The Government has now laid the required legislation to enact these changes, and these are subject to Parliamentary approval.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to increase information and awareness for members of the public on the accessibility of public spaces.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of local pilot schemes on increasing accessibility in public spaces.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a nationally recognised accessibility rating system for public venues and community spaces.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
It has not proved possible to respond to the Rt Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to support local authorities in wider adoption of accessibility rating systems.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the removal of potential bias relating to (a) class, (b) race and (c) disability in civil service recruitment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027 outlines our commitment to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds. Appointment to the Civil Service must be based on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.
To support this, and reduce the potential for bias in the recruitment process, the Cabinet Office uses name-blind recruitment where applications are anonymised during sifting. Information on candidates' socio-economic background and race is collected for monitoring and reporting purposes, but hiring managers are not provided with access to this information for individual candidates.
The Cabinet Office also uses the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), ensuring disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for a role are given a fair opportunity to demonstrate their skills at interview.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to (a) monitor and (b) help tackle potential civil service recruitment barriers for candidates from underrepresented backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027 outlines our commitment to having a Civil Service that reflects the composition of our society, attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. This includes better socio-economic representation and investing in our young people.
We have recently launched a two year Careers Launch Apprenticeship scheme in Birmingham, Manchester and London, to support our young people. In addition, the Cabinet Office develops and supports Going Forward into Employment (GFiE) recruitment pathways across government. GFiE brings people who face barriers to employment into the Civil Service. There are over 20 GFiE pathways in place and over 3,600 people have joined the Civil Service through GFiE since 2018. These are just two of the ways in which we demonstrate our ambition regarding underrepresented backgrounds.
Diversity data is collected from candidates during the recruitment process and made available to departments to support their people strategies.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the progress of the civil service in increasing the proportion of recruits from (a) lower socio-economic backgrounds, (b) with disabilities and (c) from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
We are committed to having a Civil Service that reflects the composition of our society, attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. This includes better socio-economic representation and investing in our young people. We have recently launched a two year Careers Launch Apprenticeship scheme in Birmingham, Manchester and London, to support our ambition.
We continue to monitor the diversity of our candidates and workforce to improve our recruitment in these areas and tackle barriers to employment.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that suppliers (a) linked to forced labour in Xinjiang and (b) named in allied sanctions lists are excluded from public procurement frameworks.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The UK Government is committed to tackling human rights abuses including modern slavery and human trafficking in public supply chains.
On 24 February 2025 the Procurement Act came into force, providing contracting authorities with stronger powers to exclude suppliers from public procurements where there is compelling evidence of modern slavery within their supply chains. Contracting authorities are encouraged to review a wide range of information on suppliers when seeking to determine whether an exclusion ground applies, including sanction lists.
The Act’s new debarment powers also enable us to take stronger and broader action in relation to supplier misconduct which we will use, where appropriate, to effectively hold organisations to account.
The Cabinet Office has, in addition, published extensive risk-based policy and guidance for commercial teams to tackle labour rights abuses in UK and global supply chains.