Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will compensate (a) victims of and (b) family members affected by the contaminated blood scandal.

The England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS) was established in 2017 to provide dedicated financial support to people infected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products, and their affected families. This scheme is currently administered by NHS Business Services Authority.

The Government announced a £30 million uplift to the financial support available to registered EIBSS beneficiaries on 30 April 2019.

The discretionary and non-discretionary payments made to beneficiaries and are on an ex-gratia basis; any award of compensation will depend on a determination of legal liability, to which the Infected Blood Inquiry’s determinations and recommendations may be relevant.

We are committed to working with counterpart schemes in the devolved administrations to look at the issue of parity of support across the United Kingdom and are engaging in discussions on this issue.