Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of Crown immunity on the ability to bring legal action on liability for the infection of patients with contaminated NHS blood.

The Department’s assessment is that Crown immunity does not limit an individual’s right to redress via legal action. Crown immunity does not protect from civil suit, but only from criminal prosecution. Indeed, some affected persons did bring an action in 1988, which was settled out of court, without establishment of liability.