Contribution
My Lords, there are moments in history when the machinery of the state fails its people so gravely that it leaves scars on the national conscience. The infected blood scandal is one such moment: a tragedy measured not only in lives lost but in decades of suffering, neglect and injustice.
In 2017, my noble friend Lady May of Maidenhead recognised this failure and announced a full statutory inquiry. I pay particular tribute to the tireless work of the noble Baronesses, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, Lady Featherstone, Lady Brinton and Lady Finlay.
It was a watershed moment and an acknowledgement, at last, that the victims of this scandal had been failed by the very institutions meant to protect them, and from that moment there was consensus across all parties that justice must be done and that compensation must be fair, comprehensive and delivered without delay.
That is why, when the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, came to office, she made clear that the Government would get on with it. As she wrote, while shadow Chancellor, in her letter to Jeremy Hunt in December 2023:
“For the victims, time matters. It is estimated that every four days someone affected by infected blood dies”.
She also noted:
“This is not a party political issue. All of us have a responsibility to act now to address this historic wrong. That includes working together on a cross-party basis”.
That spirit of cross-party consensus was evident in the final months of the last Government. John Glen worked closely with Nick Thomas-Symonds, as did my noble friend Lord Howe with the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, to ensure agreement on the key elements of the compensation framework. It was a moment of unity, a recognition that justice must be shaped not by political considerations but by the needs of those who have suffered.
I greatly appreciate the engagement of the Minister, to which the noble Baronesses, Lady Brinton and Lady Finlay, have referred. We all share that commitment: the commitment that those affected must finally receive the justice, recognition and compensation they deserve.
The final report of the Infected Blood Inquiry, so ably chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, was eventually published on 20 May 2024, and the Government committed to compensate victims in line with the report’s recommendations. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority, IBCA, led by Sir Robert Francis, was set up as an arm’s-length body to administer the compensation scheme. Clear understandings were reached at that time between both Government and Opposition Benches, both in this House and in the other place, that Sir Brian’s recommendations would be implemented in full.
There is much to welcome in the Government’s commitment to £11.8 billion in funding, and in its acceptance that compensation must be delivered without further delay. However, it is with considerable regret that the Government have placed these draft regulations before the House. Victims’ groups and campaigners, including the Haemophilia Society, the Hepatitis C Trust and many others, have raised concerns that key elements of Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations have not been fully implemented. As the regret amendment from by the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, sets out, the object and effect of these regulations appear to be to alter substantially the scope of victims’ eligibility for compensation, the evidential burdens they are expected to satisfy to avail themselves of compensation, and the quantum of compensation to be awarded to some of those victims who are within scope.
We must therefore ask whether these regulations are delivering the fair and comprehensive scheme that the inquiry envisioned. Do they uphold the proposals set out in the infected blood inquiry report and the Government’s response or do they instead introduce exclusions that lead to inconsistent treatment of victims, downgrade previously agreed awards, disregard expert advisory recommendations by imposing new evidence requirements for certain support scheme payments and discriminate against carers and those receiving care through the proposed care awards framework?