Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to help ensure that the Infected Blood Compensation Authority claims process is accessible to people whose historic NHS records are missing or partially redacted.

The Scheme has been designed to minimise as far as possible the burden on those applying, and as set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024, eligibility for the Scheme will be determined based on the balance of probabilities. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority will provide assistance to those who believe their medical records have been lost or destroyed.

In addition to this, on 3 July 2025, the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office wrote to the Chairs of the PAC and PACAC Committees to set out the measures being taken to prioritise faster compensation payments, and one of these measures is to use the powers in the Victims and Prisoners Act to get records from the Infected Blood Inquiry, and using testimony to contribute to the assessment of proof of infection.