Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent) (Lab)

My Lords, as today is my first time engaging publicly in your Lordships’ House on this hugely important issue, I hope noble Lords will allow me a moment to thank those whose tireless work brought us to this point, especially the noble Earl, Lord Howe, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, whose dedication ensured that the legislative framework for delivering compensation was established. I pay tribute to noble Lords across this Chamber who have ensured that the voices of people infected and affected remain at the centre of our debates, particularly the noble Baronesses, Lady Campbell and Lady Featherstone, who have been resolute in seeking justice for everyone so tragically impacted by this harrowing scandal. At the heart of this are countless people whose personal experiences and needs must always drive our actions. We must pay testament to those across the infected blood community, whose tenacious fight for justice has driven this work for so long. I hope that these regulations mark the next substantial step forward in finally getting compensation to those who have fought for so long. This Government recognise that those impacted by this heartbreaking tragedy understandably have limited trust in the state. The onus is on us to rebuild those relationships and support those impacted as they progress through the next chapter of their journey. This is an area of deep importance for me, and I am personally and deeply driven to make sure that the Government are moving this work forward in the right way. The infected blood scandal was a profound failure of the state. It is hard to conceive the scale of damage done and the incredible suffering of everyone impacted. The people impacted must remain at the forefront of our minds and we must do everything in our power to rectify this injustice, restore trust in the state and demonstrate that we will not allow for failures such as this to happen again. That is why we are going further than any other Government have gone before. In the Autumn Budget, we set aside £11.8 billion to compensate people who are infected and affected by the infected blood scandal, making it rightly one of the largest compensation schemes in our country’s history.