Victims of Britain’s Tainted Blood Scandal to Receive Compensation

Blood is collected from a donor into a bag during a blood drive on Capitol Hill in Washington, on June 20, 2017. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Thousands of Britons are to get interim compensation payments of £100,000 after the government accepted the findings of an initial inquiry into the tainted blood transfusion scandal.

Campaigners gave a cautious welcome to the news.

Following on from recommendations made in a public inquiry headed by Sir Brian Lanstaff, the British government announced on Aug. 17 that it will make payments to the infected and bereaved partners this October 2022.

The tainted blood scandal dates back to the 1970s and 80s. It has cost thousands of lives, although estimates vary on the number of people who died. For decades, people were infected by the NHS with contaminated blood imported from the United States.

Most of those affected were being treated for haemophilia, a hereditary disease in which a person’s blood lacks a factor that’s essential for clotting.

In the 1970s, a new product, factor concentrate, was developed from donated blood. Britain and other countries began to import factor concentrate from the United States. Patients were unaware that factor concentrate had been pooled together from the blood of high-risk groups such as prisoners or prostitutes.

The result was that 1,000s of people contracted potentially lethal infections such as HIV and hepatitis C. Haemophilia in women is rare, so most of those who suffered and died were men.

Inquiry

The Infected Blood Inquiry, set up under Theresa May’s administration, started its work in 2018. It has seen over 5,000 witnesses. Its next hearings are scheduled for September.

On July 8, 2021, the paymaster general tasked Sir Robert Francis QC to look at the question of compensation. Francis made the case in March 2022 that victims should get interim payments (pdf) because full payments would take too long.

Sir Robert Francis gave his findings to the Infected Blood Inquiry on July 21, 2022.

“He [Francis] made a compelling case that interim payments are needed now to alleviate suffering and I agree with him,” Lanstaff said.

“This is not the end of the inquires and the question of compensation and its scoop is not resolved on this short report on interim payments,” Lanstaff added.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged, “The pain and suffering endured by those affected by this tragic injustice.”

“We are taking action to do right by victims and those who have tragically lost their partners by making sure they receive these interim payments as quickly as possible,” Johnson said in the government statement.

Kit Malthouse, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster which implements government business, said his priority was to get the money to the people who deserve it as quickly as possible.

“Of course, no amount of money will compensate for the turmoil victims and their loved ones have faced, but I hope these payments help to show that we are on their side and will do everything in our power to support them,” Malthouse said.

Campaigners welcomed the news but said the compensations do not go far enough yet.

Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, who works with 1,400 families of victims and the bereaved said, it is “welcome news for those still with us whose lives and health have been blighted by the infected blood scandal.”

“Many of them can’t work and desperately need funds to survive. It is also an important sign that the wheels of justice are beginning to turn in favour of those impacted by this terrible scandal,” Collins said in a statement.

“This commitment is far from the end of the story. These are interim payments but they by no means represent anything like meaningful compensation for those who continue to suffer,” he said.

Simon Veazey contributed to this report.