Pay blood scandal victims £100,000, says inquiry chief

INFECTED blood victims should be paid £100,000 compensation because they are “living on borrowed time”, the inquiry chairman has said.

Sir Brian Langstaff, head of the Infected Blood Inquiry, said the payments should be made “without delay” to those infected or their bereaved partners. “Not to do so is potentially unjust. It exposes people to continued pain, difficulty and disability, the worst of which can be alleviated now,” Sir Brian said in an interim report.

He made the recommendation after Sir Rober Francis QC’S report to Government last month, which said that interim payments of at least £100,000 should be made to those previously accepted as eligible for support.

The inquiry was established to examine how thousands of patients in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 2,400 people died in what has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.

Sir Brian said after considering submissions made to the inquiry of “profound physical and mental suffering”, it was “right” to make this report.

In an accompanying letter to Michael Ellis, the Paymaster General, Sir Brian said an interim payment should be made “to all those infected and all bereaved partners currently registered on UK infected blood support schemes, and those who register between now and the inception of any future scheme”.

“The amount should be no less than £100,000, as recommended by Sir Robert Francis QC.”

The recommendation for interim compensation comes a year before the inquiry is due to end. It is expected a package of compensation recommendations will be made once it ends, but campaigners have argued an early payment is necessary for those who have suffered for years since their infection.

Sir Brian said many of those eligible for an award “are likely to be living on borrowed time”.

A government spokesman said it was “grateful” to the former high court judge for his interim report and would consider his recommendations.