Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many documents the Independent Public Inquiry on NHS Supplied Contaminated Blood and Blood Products by Lord Archer of Sandwell QC requested from his Department; how many of these requests were (a) accepted and (b) rejected; and how many documents submitted contained redacted information.

The Department co-operated with Lord Archer’s Inquiry. Over 5,500 official documents were shared with the Inquiry. In addition, Departmental officials met with the Inquiry team several times to talk them through the documentation.

Any redacted documents provided to the Inquiry will have been redacted in line with standard Freedom of Information practice.

All documents up to 1995 were made available through the National Archive in 2016, in line with the Public Records Act on the retention and release of official files.