Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the special appeals process for people infected with Stage 1 Hepatitis C as a result of receiving contaminated blood will be managed by (a) his Department or (b) the new single trust which will be established from 2017-18.

In 2017/18, we will introduce a special appeals mechanism for people currently at stage 1 of their hepatitis C infection, to apply for a higher level of payment, equivalent to the stage 2 annual payments of £15,500, details of which are still being considered. We envisage that the new single scheme administrator will administer and manage such a process.