Contaminated blood scandal payouts to start by end of year, says UK government

Victims of the contaminated blood scandal will begin receiving compensation before the end of the year, and some people will be entitled to more than £2.5m, the government has confirmed.

An outline of the long-awaited compensation scheme was set out in May, after the final report of the infected blood inquiry laid bare what Rishi Sunak, the then UK prime minister, called “a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”

More than 3,000 people died and many more had their lives ruined because of diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C caused by infusions of contaminated blood given between the 1970s and 1990s. Campaigners spent decades urging successive governments to take responsibility, and compensate victims and their families.

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

A second set of regulations covering victims’ families and others affected will follow in the coming months, with payments for these individuals to be made, starting in 2025.

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Source: Guardian, 16 August 2024

Related reading

Infected Blood Inquiry: The Report (20 May 2024)