Bereaved relatives in compensation plea as Government figures face blood inquiry

Bereaved relatives of victims of the NHS infected blood scandal will deliver a letter to Number 10 on Monday calling for full compensation as key Government figures are set to give evidence to a public inquiry.

Commons Leader and former paymaster general Penny Mordaunt is to give evidence to the Infected Blood Inquiry on Monday amid complaints the Government is dragging its heels over compensation payments.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to give evidence on Wednesday with Chancellor and former health secretary Jeremy Hunt due to appear on Friday.

The ministers will give evidence on the Government’s response to the use of infected blood and the question of compensation.

The inquiry was established in 2017 to examine how thousands of patients in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 2,400 people died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

Jason Evans, 33, was four years old when his father Jonathan, a 31-year-old carpenter from Coventry, died after being infected with hepatitis C and HIV.

Mr Evans, who will be among those who will hand in the letter addressed to Mr Sunak on Monday, told the PA news agency: “We need action to happen now because people are dying, not just people infected but the bereaved families as well.

“We know that 380 children were infected with HIV, many of those died in childhood, and their parents are now in their 80s.

“We know of people who have died only recently.

“People are dying without seeing any acknowledgement.”

Inquiry chairman Sir Brian Langstaff has said that an interim compensation scheme should be widened so more people – including orphaned children and parents who lost children – could be compensated.

Sir Brian said in April that he was taking the unusual step of publishing the recommendation ahead of the publication of the full report into the scandal so that victims would not face any more delays.

Under the initial scheme victims themselves or bereaved partners can receive an interim payment of around £100,000.

The inquiry has recommended the Government establish an arms-length compensation body now and definitely before the final report in the autumn.

The letter states: “This delay denies victims and their families any sense of tangible progress.

“Many continue to die without full redress, this can not be right.

“The interim payment for deaths not yet recognised is critical.

“These payments are not just about compensation, they symbolise acknowledgement and they represent initial recognition of each life lost.”

A Government spokesman said: “The Government accepts the moral case for compensation and work is ongoing across the UK Government and in consultation with the devolved administrations to consider as quickly as possible the recommendations put forward in the inquiry’s second interim report.”