Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of infected blood victims who (a) are not registered with a compensation scheme, (b) fall outside the cut-off dates but are eligible for compensation and (c) have not received an interim payment.

Due to the nature of the Infected Blood scandal there is uncertainty over the number of people who might be eligible for compensation. Early estimates made within the Cabinet Office of those who are infected were that there are approximately 8,500 to 16,500 infected individuals, both living and deceased, who would claim. Of these, approximately 3,500 are currently living and registered with an Infected Blood Support Scheme. However, the final number of eligible people will ultimately depend on the number of victims who come forward. There is no limit or target on the amount announced for the scheme and each eligible person will get the compensation they are due.

The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme does not have hard cut off dates based on someone’s infection after which they will not be eligible. There are dates set out in the 2025 Regulations based on when routine screening became available. Those infected after the dates specified in the regulations will not be excluded from the scheme, as long as they can provide evidence that they received infected blood or blood products.

To date, the Government has paid over £1.2 billion in interim compensation payments to infected people, bereaved partners and estates of those who have very sadly died due to infected blood. Over 500 interim payments have been paid to the estates of deceased infected people, totalling over £50 million, and applications for interim payments to estates are still open.

As of 3 June, IBCA has contacted 1,360 people to start their compensation claim, and 981 have started the claim process. 324 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £253 million, and so far 218 people have accepted their offers with more than £166 million paid in compensation.