Factor 8 Condemns Omission of Infected Blood Compensation in Government Budget
Factor 8, the UK's leading infected blood scandal campaign organisation, expresses its profound disappointment following Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's budget announcement, which failed to include any provision for compensating victims of the infected blood scandal. This neglect comes despite a powerful cross-party appeal from nearly 120 MPs, who, ahead of the budget, urged the Chancellor to earmark funds [1].
The infected blood scandal, which saw thousands infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, is the biggest treatment disaster in the NHS's history. With a significant number of those impacted still awaiting any redress, the government's lack of action in this budget has been met with dismay and frustration.
While the final compensation scheme may reach billions in the long-term, the Inquiry's final compensation recommendations published in April 2023 and the cross-party letter called for immediate interim payments to recognise unacknowledged deaths and alleviate immediate suffering. The maximum cost of these payments is £200 million, a fraction of the overall compensation bill, making the government's inaction even more indefensible.
Jason Evans (Director of Factor 8) said: "The government has missed another opportunity to bring certainty to those who are sick and dying as a result of infected blood products. Refusal to allocate even the smallest fraction of the budget for interim payments clearly indicates their disregard for the victims' suffering. The cost is minimal compared to the overall budget, yet the impact on the victims' lives would be monumental. This isn't just a budgetary oversight; it's a moral failure of the highest order."
Factor 8 disputes unverified reports that a final compensation bill will reach £20bn. Unless families will receive, on average, £3,076,923 (20bn divided by 6,500 families), which is clearly not the case, then this figure cannot be right. We know 4,500 interim payments have been made to those registered on existing schemes [2] and there are 2,000 unrecognised deaths, totalling 6,500 families [3]. Therefore, the final bill will likely be closer to £5bn.
https://x.com/DianaJohnsonMP/status/1763512864323613024?s=20
https://www.infectedbloodinquiry.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/INQY1000282%20-%20London%20-%20Friday%2028%20July%202023%20-%20Jeremy%20Hunt%20-%2028%20Jul%202023.pdf (Internal Section 68)
Background:
In October 2022, the government paid interim compensation payments of £100,000 to those infected with either Hepatitis C or HIV who are still alive and to bereaved partners through the existing support schemes. Infected victims continue to die without knowing that their suffering and loss will be fully recognised, either in their lifetime or at all.
The lives of most of those who have died remain unrecognised by interim payment. In July 2023, the Infected Blood Inquiry presented data showing that of the 2,900 deaths attributable to infected blood products, 900 interim compensation payments had been made to bereaved partners.
From this data, it can be seen there are 2,000 deaths for which no interim payment has been made, leaving most bereaved families without any compensation. Only one-third of deceased victims were in a relationship when they died.
In his second interim report, Sir Brian Langstaff said: "The payment of interim awards to bereaved partners has emphasised the fact that some people have died as a result of infected blood and blood products without any payment being made in respect of their death, leaving bereaved parents, children or siblings who have suffered profound distress and loss which has to date been unremedied.
An interim payment now to those who fall within these categories is a way of answering current needs which will represent no more than a reasonable proportion of the likely sums to which the individual concerned will ultimately be entitled, through a combination of a claim in their own right as an affected individual and the claim on behalf of the deceased's estate...
Accordingly, I recommend that an interim payment of £100,000 should be paid to recognise the deaths of people to date unrecognised and thereby alleviate immediate suffering."
Background to the Infected Blood Scandal:
The Infected Blood Scandal is the event of thousands of people in the UK (mostly Haemophiliacs) being infected with Hepatitis C (HCV) or HCV & HIV (co-infected) by a pharmaceutical blood product called Factor VIII. The Infected Blood Inquiry has determined that approximately around 1,250 people with bleeding disorders were infected with both HIV & HCV and 2,400 – 5,000 people with bleeding disorders were infected with HCV (but not HIV). Every person infected with HIV was also infected with HCV.
In 1953, the World Health Organisation warned plasma products should not be made from more than 10 donations due to the risk of hepatitis infection. Despite this, Factor VIII, made from tens of thousands of highrisk donations, was imported and given to people with haemophilia from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. In March 1975, the UK's blood products laboratory director was aware that children at the Treloar school were being infected with hepatitis.
In October 1976, the Public Health Laboratory Service said in a letter to the blood products laboratory that: "there is a fairly constant incidence of hepatitis which occurs after transfusion of both English FVIII and other commercial preparations".
In the early 1980s, Factor VIII also became infected with HIV. In May 1983, the director of the UK's Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre and the country's most senior epidemiologist, Dr Spence Galbraith, wrote to the department of health saying Factor VIII should be "withdrawn from use" due to AIDS risk.
Despite these warnings, and many more, the government allowed the use and importation of dangerous Factor VIII products until mid-1985. Although the products faded out of use from this time, they were never officially withdrawn.
We provide further warnings and source documents at the links below:
