Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will ensure that all files held by (a) the Macfarlane Trust, (b) the Caxton Foundation, (c) the Eileen Trust, (d) the Skipton Trust and (e) MFET Ltd are made available to the contaminated blood inquiry in the event that those bodies are decommissioned in the 2018-19 fiscal year.

On 3 November the Cabinet Office made a Written Ministerial Statement stating that the inquiry would take a statutory form, under the Inquiries Act 2005, and that Cabinet Office would be the sponsoring department.

The Terms of Reference of the inquiry will therefore be agreed between Cabinet Office Ministers and the inquiry Chair. A statutory inquiry held under the Inquiries Act 2005 has the power to compel witnesses to share relevant files and give evidence.

Officials are working with the former infected blood payment schemes to confirm arrangements for the long term storage and access to records once the schemes have closed.