Victims of infected blood scandal set to be given compensation from government
Victims of the infected blood scandal are to receive compensation from the government after ministers caved in to demands for a scheme.
Rishi Sunak faced what would have been the first Commons defeat of his premiership after Tory MPs planned to defy a three line whip and vote for an amendment backing a compensation scheme.
The amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill had been tabled by Labour MP and home affairs committee chairman Dame Diana Johnson, who has campaigned on the issue on behalf of victims and their families.
But Home Office minister Edward Argar said given the strength of feeling in the Commons on the issue, the government would bring forward its own plans for a scheme along the lines proposed by Dame Diana.
He told MPs: “The infected blood scandal should never have happened to my thoughts and I believe all those in this house remain with those affected by this appalling tragedy.”
Mr Argar said the government had already accepted the “moral case” for compensation and added that the government would bring forward its own amendment to the bill when it reaches the Lords, which “will put in place the necessary legislative framework and timescales for a delivery body for compensation for the victims of infected blood to be established”.
Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
The government had planned to impose a three-line whip ordering Tory MPs to vote down Dame Diana’s amendment, but faced with a serious Commons rebellion, ministers backed down.
The Labour MP had said earlier in the debate: “I think it is important this evening that we show to the Government that the will of this Parliament across parties is that that body should be set up to administer compensation payments to start to deliver justice to those infected and affected by the contaminated blood scandal.”
