Government criticised for lack of role at inquiry

The Scottish Government has been criticised at the start of the contaminated blood inquiry.

Lawyers said Scots patients questioned why ministers were not playing a key role in the Uk-wide investigation now under way in London.

In a statement on behalf of about 250 Scottish victims, Aidan O’neill said the people he represented judged the move “cowardly” and “appalling”.

The Scottish Government said it was in talks with the Cabinet Office.

The public inquiry is looking at how thousands of NHS patients were given infected blood products during the 1970s and 1980s in what has been dubbed the worst-ever NHS treatment disaster. It comes three years after the Penrose Inquiry, set up by the Scottish Government, was labelled a “whitewash”.