Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what consultations his Department held with beneficiaries of the Macfarlane Trust prior to the closure of that Trust and transfer of that Trust's residual funds and assets to the Terrence Higgins Trust.

The Department launched the first infected blood consultation, ‘Infected blood: reform on financial and other support’¹, in January 2016. The consultation confirmed that the majority of beneficiaries would prefer one scheme to the then five schemes. The second consultation ‘Infected blood: Consultation on Special Category Mechanism and financial and other support in England’² in October 2017 announced that NHS Business Services Authority, not the former scheme administrators, such as the Macfarlane Trust, would manage the new reformed scheme.

I have written to the Macfarlane Trust on a number of occasions since 12 September 2018 asking for its plans with respect to any residual funds it held on closure. I also reminded the Macfarlane Trust that it must operate in accordance with its trust deed which states that the funds can only be transferred to one or more bodies established for charitable purposes with similar, or the same, objectives to its own i.e. providing support for people infected with HIV. The Macfarlane Trust informed me of the transfer of the its residual funds and assets to the Terrence Higgins Trust via a letter dated 12 December 2018. Consultation with beneficiaries regarding this transfer of assets on closure was not the responsibility of the Department.

Notes:

¹https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/infected-blood-reform-of-financial-and-other-support

²https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/infected-blood-support-special-category-mechanism