The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Contaminated blood left 2,400 people dead
Decision to hold probe has been prompted by new evidence
An inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal which has left 2,400 people dead is to be launched.
Prime Minister Theresa May told the Cabinet she and health secretary Jeremy Hunt had decided a probe was needed.
Mrs May’s spokesman said the Prime Minister considered the contaminated blood situation a “scandal”.
He said: “Consultation will now take place with those affected to decide exactly what form the inquiry will take, such as a Hillsborough-style independent panel or a judge-led statutory inquiry.”
The spokesman said the decision to hold an investigation had been prompted by new evidence.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “It was obviously a serious systemic failure. I think we need the strongest possible inquiry that can, if necessary, lead to prosecution actions as a result, but above all get to the bottom of it.”
The scandal involved haemophiliacs and other patients being infected with hepatitis C and HIV from blood products during the 1970s and 1980s.
Greater Manchester mayor and former health secretary Andy Burnham claimed that a “criminal cover-up on an industrial scale” had taken place.
He said victims were used as “guinea pigs” and subjected to “slurs and smears” via falsified medical records.
Others had tests carried out without their knowledge or consent, with the results withheld “for decades in some cases” even when they revealed positive results.