Government Re-Shuffle & Infected Blood

Jeremy Quin resigns

Jeremy Quin has resigned as Paymaster General and you can read his resignation letter here.

New Paymaster General

The new Paymaster General (PMG) is John Glen, who was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (CST). His new role as PMG carries ministerial responsibility for the Infected Blood inquiry, though his previous role as CST also involved matters relating to infected blood compensation.

We are aware through our freedom of information work that CST's office has had extensive involvement in infected blood compensation matters. So, unlike with previous PMG switches, we are not starting from scratch with John Glen.

Caroline Wheeler (Political Editor at The Sunday Times) said on Twitter yesterday: "@JohnGlenUK becomes the new paymaster general. The last conversation I had with him was about the contaminated blood scandal and he appeared on top of the details from the Treasury's side of things. Let's hope that's a good sign…."

New Secretary of State for Health

Steve Barclay is no longer Secretary of State for Health and has been replaced by Victoria Atkins.

Victoria has spoken passionately about the infected blood scandal in the past as a backbench MP and we have uploaded her speech to parliament on the day that the inquiry was announced in 2017 here.

Esther McVey enters the Cabinet Office

Esther McVey has been made Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office and will attend Cabinet. As recently as last year, she has raised infected blood compensation issues in parliament through written questions, including asking the government to publish a timetable for compensation.

New Chief Secretary to the Treasury (CST)

The new CST is Laura Trott.

Last year, she tabled a written question asking when the Government plans to publish its response to Sir Robert Francis KC's Infected Blood Compensation Framework study. And, the year before that, she asked about addressing disparities in support.

Richard Holden

Richard Holden has been appointed Minister without Portfolio and is now Chairman of the Conservative Party.

Richard is a member of the APPG on haemophilia and contaminated blood. Last year in parliament, he asked: "With Sir Robert Francis's report recommending that substantial compensation be paid to those infected and affected by contaminated blood and blood products, what conversations have taken place with Her Majesty's Treasury on allocating a sufficient budget to cover the costs between the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Treasury itself?"

Summary & Considerations

Time will tell whether these changes have a positive effect on our campaign. We hope that the new ministers will help us to make progress. It is unusual during a re-shuffle for so many new ministers to have been advocates for infected blood issues.

There will be shared scepticism within the community about how helpful this may be given the implications of the ministerial code and collective cabinet responsibility.

We will continue efforts to lobby ministers and officials for progress on the Infected Blood Inquiry's final compensation recommendations, before the final report.

One of our immediate concerns is the continuity of work to date, particularly the SMG (Senior Ministerial Group) on Infected Blood Compensation.

We will keep you updated as we learn more.