Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions his Department held during the Parliamentary summer recess with victims and victims' groups on the contaminated blood inquiry.

The Department did not hold any discussions during Parliamentary summer recess with victims or victims' groups on the contaminated blood inquiry. Bishop James Jones, former Chair of the Hillsborough Independent Panel and Chair of the Gosport Independent Panel, had a telephone meeting with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood and a number of the campaign groups on 27 July. Following this meeting, the Bishop informed the Department of the request to remove the 18 August deadline for views on the format and scope of the upcoming independent inquiry. The Government has therefore decided to extend the deadline to 18 October 2017, to ensure that we hear as many opinions as possible.