Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how much his Department has allocated in grants to the (a) Macfarlane and Eileen Trust, (b) Skipton Fund, (c) Macfarlane Trust, (d) Eileen Trust and (e) Caxton Foundation in each year since their inception; whether such funding is allocated at the discretion of his Department; whether the size of those grants in each year is determined on the basis of a formula; what representations his Department has received from each of those organisations in the last four years to the amounts allocated; what entities fund each such body; and what his Department's planned future funding allocations to those bodies are for the next five years.

The funding for the system of financial support for people infected with HIV and hepatitis C as a result of treatment with NHS supplied blood or blood products, is at the discretion of the four UK Health Departments. The Department of Health is the sole funder of MFET Ltd, the Macfarlane Trust and the Eileen Trust. All four UK Health Departments provide funding for the Skipton Fund and Caxton Foundation.

A document outlining the grants that have been made to each of the schemes from 1988 to April 2014 is attached. Payments from the Skipton Fund and MFET Ltd are set by the UK Health Departments, and the Department provides sufficient funds to pay all approved claims. The budget allocations for the Macfarlane Trust, the Eileen Trust and the Caxton Foundation are discretionary and take account of what each received in the previous year and the Department’s other funding priorities. In the last four years, the Department has received one business case from Caxton Foundation and one from the Macfarlane Trust for an increase in their allocations. Funding allocations for Macfarlane Trust, the Eileen Trust and the Caxton Foundation for the next five years have not yet been decided.