Infected blood victims ‘pressured to accept payout’

THE Government knowingly used underhand tactics to force victims of the infected blood scandal to accept a widely criticised legal settlement in 1991, according to a document that will be used to quiz a former minister today.

In the document seen by The Daily Telegraph, the Treasury criticised the Department of Health over its handling of a lawsuit in which people who had been infected with HIV by haemophilia medication were given £20,000.

A handwritten note scrawled on top of the letter said: “Vexing as DH’S handling was, it turned out as well (or better than) we might have expected.

“I will however make clear again to DH that this was no way to do business.”

In the 1970s and 80s, 1,243 people with haemophilia in the UK were infected with HIV by a pharmaceutical product called Factor 8. The same product, which contained the blood of American prisoners, infected around 4,700 people in Britain with hepatitis C.

In 1991, those with HIV settled a £34million lawsuit with the Government which led to about £20,000 being paid to each victim, many of whom had been given a death sentence.

The Infected Blood Inquiry is trying to establish if victims were coerced into signing the agreement and if it withheld medical knowledge from them.

David Mellor, a former chief secretary to the Treasury, will today be asked to comment on the document – a letter from the Department of Health to the Treasury – and the Government’s treatment of victims at the Infected Blood Inquiry today.

Jason Evans, founder of the campaign group Factor 8, said: “People were railroaded into this settlement. The reason this document is so important is that it’s the only one I’ve seen that says, within Government they knew what had happened was bad.”

Mr Evans has unearthed hundreds of documents and given them to the Infected Blood Inquiry.

At the inquiry, Mr Mellor will be asked about the behind-the-scenes discussions in the Treasury over the HIV litigation, and if he wrote the note.

It comes after the revelation last week that Dr Andrzej Rejman had hidden information from victims.

Dr Rejman admitted advising the Government to add a clause to the HIV litigation preventing people who later discovered they had been infected with hepatitis C from suing again. At the time, Dr Rejman had evidence that thousands of people could have been infected.

The Infected Blood Inquiry will hear from politicians such as Sir John Major and Andy Burnham in the coming weeks. The scandal is the focus of the latest series of The Telegraph’s investigative podcast, Bed of Lies.

The Department of Health said, “The infected blood tragedy should never have happened and the ongoing public inquiry was set up to get to the truth and give families the answers they deserve.”