Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many meetings (a) he and (b) his Department has had with individuals infected and affected by contaminated blood in each of the last five years.

It is a measure of the scale of the infected blood scandal that the statutory Inquiry has over 2,000 infected and affected core participants. My predecessors as Ministers responsible for the Infected Blood Inquiry held formal roundtable meetings with groups of infected and affected people and representatives of campaign groups in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2023, at which my predecessors were able to hear directly from infected and affected people. Further meetings took place with individuals and their Members of Parliament once each in 2021 and 2022.

In addition to this, my predecessors have had informal meetings with groups of individuals while attending hearings of the Inquiry and in the margins of a Westminster Hall debate. My officials often correspond with and speak to individuals and campaigners in the course of their work.