Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he has allocated any funding for ex gratia payments to victims of contaminated blood for the 2016-17 financial year.

The £25 million, announced by the Prime Minister in March 2015 to support transition to a reformed scheme, will remain available in 2016-17. We are assessing what can be allocated above and beyond that. We expect to announce our plans for that money once we have a better understanding of what wider scheme reform might comprise following the outcome of consultation.