Payouts in contaminated blood scandal to begin by the end of this year, UK government says

The government has confirmed that victims of the blood scandal will receive compensation before the end of the year, with some people entitled to more than £2.5 million.

In May, an overview of the long-awaited compensation scheme was presented after the final report of the inquiry into contaminated blood revealed what Rishi Sunak, the then Prime Minister of the UK, described as “a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”.

More than 3,000 people died and many more lost their lives to diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C, caused by infusions of contaminated blood administered between the 1970s and 1990s. Campaigners have for decades urged successive governments to take responsibility and compensate victims and their families.

Sunak’s government has ordered the chairman of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), Sir Robert Francis, to consult with victims and their families on the details of the compensation scheme. Francis recommended more than 70 changes to the original proposals, most of which Keir Starmer’s government has said it will accept. These include an extra payment of £10,000 for those infected as a result of “unethical research”.

Victims who were unwittingly involved in trials at Lord Mayor Treloar College in Hampshire as children, in one of the most egregious aspects of the scandal uncovered by the inquiry, will receive an extra £15,000.

The government is expected to introduce regulations by August 24 that will set up the new scheme so that survivors who were infected can start receiving payments before the end of the year. For those who have already died, payments will be made to their estates.

In the coming months, a second set of rules will follow, covering the families of victims and other affected people. Payments will be made to these people from 2025.

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, said: “We will do everything we can to provide swift compensation and in many cases life-changing sums to people who have been infected and affected by this scandal. We know that no amount of compensation can fully compensate for the harm done to people as a result of this scandal. That is why, alongside compensation, we must also make the wider cultural changes to ensure that something like this never happens again.”

Francis also recommended that victims be allowed to continue receiving existing maintenance payments for the rest of their lives. The government confirmed that these people would be allowed to do this, in addition to any additional compensation they were entitled to. Campaign groups had raised concerns that some victims could be left worse off if these regular payments were stopped.

Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: “We are pleased that the government has said that support programmes will continue for life, because people were concerned about the safety, not just of those infected but also of their families.”

She urged the IBCA to continue engaging with the affected community as the programme kicked off.

The total compensation payments will consist of lump sums for different aspects of the harm caused by the scandal, including loss of earnings and care needs. Illustrative scenarios outlined by the government when the scheme was first announced showed that someone who contracted HIV as a result of receiving contaminated blood could be entitled to up to £2,615,000.

Government sources declined to give an estimate of the likely total cost of the compensation payments. About 3,000 people have already registered with the IBCA as potential recipients.

The infected blood inquiry, led by Sir Brian Longstaff, has spent six years gathering evidence of the widespread failings that led to the scandal. Sunak formally apologised to victims and their families when the inquiry was published.

Rachel Halford, chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, said: “We are pleased that the government has listened to the concerns of the infected blood community about the continuation of lifetime support payments, which have been a significant source of anxiety for many of our helpline callers. However, we are disappointed that existing support schemes have not been opened up more widely, including to people who contracted hepatitis C after 1991 and to people who contracted hepatitis B.

“The government must work transparently and openly with the infected blood community and explain its reasoning for the likely compensation levels and the basis for these figures. Thousands of lives have been changed forever when people contracted hepatitis C, and compensation must reflect that reality.”