Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the time taken to award victims of the contaminated blood scandal compensation.

A small number of compensation payments have been paid to a number of people affected by infected blood where out of court settlements have been agreed or the courts awarded compensation under the Consumer Protection Act. As liability has not been established in the majority of cases, most support for affected individuals has been and continues to be provided through Government funded ex-gratia payments set up for people who have been affected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products.