Yesterday afternoon, Haemophilia Scotland, along with other charities and campaign groups involved in the Infected Blood Inquiry, received a letter from John Glen, the Minister for the Cabinet Office. A copy of this letter can be found here.
Within his letter, the Minister provides some new information relating to the UK Government’s progress in setting up a compensation scheme for those impacted by the infected blood scandal. These are as follows:
- Confirmation that the UK Government have now submitted their own amendments to the Victims and Prisoners Bill. The full list of amendments is available here.
- A proposal within these amendments for an Interim Compensation payment of £100,000 to the estates of deceased infected persons. The amendments detail how this payment would be split between potential recipients (parents, children or siblings)
- A response to the concerns raised over the expert group appointed earlier this year with the publication of the Terms of Reference for the purpose and role of this group. The Terms of Reference can be found here.
With the amendments from the UK Government now tabled, the House of Lords will continue to debate any proposed amendments before voting to include these amendments in the Victims and Prisoners Bill. The Bill is currently at the Report Stage and the next two sitting dates for discussion and debate would be either the 23rd of April or 30th of April when the Report stage is scheduled to finish.
Once this has completed the final processes in the House of Lords, the Bill would then be passed back to the House of Commons to consider and may ping pong back and forth between each House until fully agreed and receiving Royal Assent to become Law.
Although we welcome the progress made in the last 24 hours, there are still many unanswered questions that need to be addressed along with new ones following the publication of the amendments.
Haemophilia Scotland has been actively trying to engage with the UK Government for many months on the matter of compensation. Our aim has always been to find out what progress has been made, the source of the continued delays and when they expect to make such details public. We, along with the Haemophilia Society and Haemophilia Northern Ireland, have written to John Glen several times since his appointment (and to his predecessors) to ask for them to speak to us. The most recent letter was in our website article from the 28th of March which is linked here.
Haemophilia Scotland has been very transparent with our intention to ask questions of the UK Government and demanding the ability to do so.
Following the letters to John Glen, our Co-Chair, Bill Wright, was contacted recently about the possibility of a meeting with the Minister in early May, likely in Edinburgh. However, no official invitation has been extended since this brief phone call. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether the Minister and his team are open to answering the questions outlined in our letter dated 28th of March and any new ones following the publication of the amendments and Terms and Conditions. If we do not get assurances of a willingness and commitment to share information after so many months of secrecy, then we would not be willing to take part in any meetings that would be considered as a time-wasting exercise.
We will ensure that members are kept fully informed of any confirmed meeting dates and the discussions held with the Minister.