Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many times his Department has received applications for (a) additional funding or (b) other support from the funds and trusts which provide support to people with contaminated blood in each of the last five years.

The Department only provides funding to the five financial support schemes which provide support to people infected with HIV and/or hepatitis C as a result of treatment with contaminated National Health Service supplied blood or blood products.

The Macfarlane Trust, the Eileen Trust and the Caxton Foundation are given an annual budget allocation and are required to operate within the budget envelope of that allocation and any reserves they may hold. The Department provides MFET Ltd and the Skipton Fund with sufficient funds to meet all legitimate claims for the payments that they are mandated to make. In the last five years, the Department has received one business case for additional funding from the Macfarlane Trust, and one from the Caxton Foundation.