Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of not paying interest on unpaid compensation awards for the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme on claimants, the estates of deceased claimants and bereaved family members.

The Government has decided not to adjust individual compensation awards to account for interest a person could have received, or investments that someone could have made or could make in the future. The compensation scheme does not pay interest on awards for historic losses as the awards have been designed according to 2023/24 rates. For example, care awards are calculated using 2024 UK commercial care rates. Using historic rates would have made these awards considerably lower.

In some circumstances the Courts adjust compensation awards to account for interest and investment, including accounting for the lost interest that someone may have earned if they received their compensation earlier.

The Government has chosen not to adjust individual compensation awards in this way. This is to make sure that applicants have certainty about the total amount of compensation they will receive through the Scheme, regardless of when their application is processed, and to make sure Scheme is not made unduly operationally complex.