Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether there is a Barnett consequential to the existing Northern Ireland infected blood payment scheme.

As stated in the letter sent to the Chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry on 30 April 2019, the Government is committed to working with its counterparts in the devolved administrations to look at the issue of parity of support across the United Kingdom. I have written to Richard Pengelly, Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health in Northern Ireland and other counterparts in the other devolved nations inviting them to meet to discuss this issue, and a date is currently being sought for this meeting to take place.

The recently announced £30 million uplift in payments in England will be coming from existing 2019/20 Department of Health and Social Care’s non-National Health Service budget and is not a new allocation from HM Treasury. There is therefore no Barnett consequential arising from this for the existing Northern Ireland scheme.