Scots tainted blood scandal victims are promised justice

● Fresh inquiry offers new hope of answers after fury over ‘whitewash’

Scottish NHS patients who were given transfusions of infected blood in the 1970 sand 1980 shave been given fresh hope that people could be held responsible after the UK government announced a major inquiry into the scandal.

Prime Minister Theresa May yesterday promised justice to families of the 2,400 people believed to have died as a result of tainted blood, and thousands more still living with illnesses.

Haemophiliacs and other patients across the UK given transfusions were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s, largely due to the use of a plasma product imported from the United States and elsewhere.

Factor VIII was produced using blood from tens of thousands of donors, including American convicts who sold their blood, leading to widespread contamination.

No criminal charges have ever been brought, and no civil liability has ever been admitted in the UK.

The Prime Minister said the scandal was an “appalling tragedy” that should “simply never have happened”. She said the NHS had failed patients and that victims and their families “have been denied answers for too long”.

A 2015 inquiry ordered by the Scottish Government was criticised by families of victims when it made just one recommendation and did not apportion blame.

The inquiry by Lord Penrose cost

The Penrose Inquiry had statutory powers but was limited by its terms of reference to examine the cases of just six patients who died after being infected by an NHS blood transfusion.

Lord Penrose made just one recommendation: that anyone who had a blood transfusion before 1991 and had not been screened for Hepatitis C should be offered a test. Angry victims branded his 1,800-page report a “whitewash” and burned a copy in the street.

The former head of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service later claimed Lord Penrose “couldn’t get to the truth” because of the way his inquiry was set up. Following publication, then prime minister David Cameron made an apology, and the Scottish Government began consultation on a consolidated support scheme for victims and families, which took over making payments to those affected earlier this year.