Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether people eligible for the infected blood compensation scheme will retain access to (a) disability grants, (b) dependent children payments and (c) other support scheme benefits.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Any payments received from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme are disregarded from means tested benefit assessments. This means that compensation payments made through the Scheme will not adversely impact on the means tested benefits received by either infected or affected people.
Those currently on the Infected Blood Support Schemes will continue to receive their discretionary payments until they receive a compensation offer from IBCA. The compensation will take into account any discretionary payments received under the support schemes when calculating a compensation award.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Government will establish a supplementary route to claim for autonomy, social impact, and injury awards outside the core route of the infected blood compensation scheme.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The scope of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme’s supplementary route is in line with the recommendations Sir Robert Francis KC made to the Government in August 2024.
In his report, Sir Robert discussed the merits of expanding the supplementary route to heads of loss beyond care and financial loss. Sir Robert concluded it would likely be disproportionate for applicants and the scheme to do so and the supplementary route should instead focus on recognising the substantive additional care needs and financial loss of applicants.
The Government accepted Sir Robert’s recommendation that, with the exception of autonomy awards to victims of unethical research, supplementary route awards should only be available for care and financial loss.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure Infected Blood Compensation Authority caseworkers and assessors are suitably trained to interpret complex medical records when determining compensation awards.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Dedicated claim managers are supporting individuals through the claim process and, depending on the data available to the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), there may be some instances in which more information is asked for to complete a claim. In those instances, IBCA may be able to help source that information to relieve the burden on the person making the claim. I visited the IBCA team led by Sir Robert Francis earlier this year. I saw how determined they are for compensation to be paid out to victims as soon as possible. Additionally, all claims managers employed since October 2024 have received three weeks of trauma-informed training for the role.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to introduce an individual assessment route for the infected blood compensation claims.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that every victim of infected blood will have their own unique circumstances, and experienced devastating losses. To avoid a lengthy, complex and burdensome evidence gathering process, the Government has accepted the Inquiry’s recommendations to take a tariff-based approach to compensation. The principles of a tariff based scheme seek to minimise the amount of information that people applying to the scheme are required to provide and help to ensure that compensation can be awarded more quickly than would otherwise be possible if all applications had to be individually assessed.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether supplementary financial loss claims under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme will be open to estates of deceased victims.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Yes. The supplementary route for financial loss will be open to all infected people, including those who have very sadly passed away.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the Infected Blood Compensation Authority will determine the date of first infection in cases where no clear medical record exists.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Given the historic nature of the infected blood scandal, the Government recognises that not all medical records will still be available. The Scheme has been designed to minimise as far as possible the burden on those applying, and as set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024, eligibility for the Scheme will be determined based on the balance of probabilities. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority will provide assistance to those who believe their medical records have been lost or destroyed. If it is not possible to establish the year in which the infection was contracted, the year in which the first blood product was received will be taken as the infection year unless there is evidence an infection must have occurred later. The regulations set out that, in such cases, the earliest possible year an infection could have been contracted will be accepted.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how infected blood compensation claims involving co-infection with HIV and hepatitis viruses will account for the earlier date of hepatitis infection when calculating compensation.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
For people co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C, compensation will be calculated from the date of the first infection. If it is not possible to establish when someone was first infected, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority will use the earliest year the infection could have been contracted unless there is evidence that it must have occurred later.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government plans to provide publicly funded legal advice and advocacy services to claimants of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme has been designed so that the process to make a claim is as easy as possible, without the advice of a solicitor. However, the Government recognises that people may wish to seek legal advice. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority’s approach is that everyone claiming compensation should be able to access free legal and financial support, up to an agreed amount, to help with certain parts of their claim. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is providing independent legal support to the people making the first claims, with around half of those who have submitted a claim so far having taken up the offer of legal support.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when applications for the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme will open; and what estimate he has made of (a) what the average waiting time will be for a claim to be processed and (b) when successful applicants will receive payment.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As the Minister responsible, I stand ready to provide all the support I can to speed up payments. I am restless for that speed to increase, while also respecting the Infected Blood Compensation Authority’s (IBCA) operational independence going forward. In terms of the speed of processing and paying claimants, each case is different and some progress quicker than others, but so far IBCA have invited 275 people to start a claim, with 69 people having accepted their offer and received payment.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the burden of proof in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme is placed on victims.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Given the long-running nature of the infected blood scandal, not all medical records will still be available and, as set out in the regulations, eligibility for compensation will be determined based on the balance of probabilities. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) has said that when an individual is invited to make their claim, it will aim to gather some of the information, including medical records and information about an applicant’s condition and severity, from organisations who already have it. This should mean those claiming will be asked for the least amount of information possible. Additionally, IBCA will make a caseworker available for each of these cases, and when I visited IBCA I saw the sympathetic, enabling approach that staff are taking when asking what types of evidence might be helpful and where it could be obtained from.