Thousands of bereaved parents and children of victims affected by the UK’s infected blood scandal will, for the first time, be eligible for compensation under new legislation set to be introduced in Parliament this month.
The proposed laws will allow those impacted by the scandal, including parents, children, and siblings, to make individual claims. Campaigners argue that many relatives, whose lives were devastated by the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, have died without receiving justice.
Between 1970 and the early 1990s, over 30,000 NHS patients were given contaminated blood transfusions or treatments containing blood products infected with hepatitis C or HIV. More than 3,000 people who were infected have since died.
There is growing frustration over the delays in awarding compensation to victims and their families. Sir Brian Langstaff, who led the public inquiry into the scandal, recommended in April 2023 that a compensation scheme should be established immediately. However, the government at the time rejected his advice, choosing instead to wait for Langstaff’s final report in May 2024 before moving forward with the scheme.
The new legislation, expected to be enacted by the end of March, will extend eligibility for compensation to partners, parents, children, and siblings of infected individuals. The amount awarded will vary depending on the claimant’s relationship with the infected person and the severity of the infection’s impact.
The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), established in May 2024, is on track to distribute over £100 million to claimants by the end of March. However, this represents less than 1% of the £11.8 billion allocated in the autumn budget for compensating victims and their families. As of December 2024, The Observer reported that only ten individuals had received compensation from the scheme.
Samantha May, from the Hepatitis C Trust, welcomed the new regulations but criticized the prolonged delays. She stated, “Parents who lost children to HIV and hepatitis C have never received a penny. Some people lost both parents and were never given the opportunity to claim.” She further expressed concerns over the timeline for payouts, emphasizing that many affected individuals are aging and dying while waiting for compensation.
Conan McIlwrath, Chair of the Haemophilia Society, echoed these frustrations, stating, “We are already far behind where we should be, and people continue to die without receiving justice.” He warned that, despite public perception, significant obstacles remain before a fully functional compensation scheme is in place.
According to IBCA figures published on January 22, 2025, only 11 compensation offers, totaling £13.4 million, had been made to members of the infected blood community. By the end of March, approximately 250 people are expected to be invited to apply for compensation. The IBCA is currently processing a small number of cases as part of a “test and learn” approach before scaling up operations significantly.
During a webinar last month, Sir Robert Francis KC, interim chair of the IBCA, acknowledged the frustrations over slow payments. “I am fully aware that these numbers are tiny compared to the thousands entitled to compensation,” he said. “However, this marks a historic moment—people have fought for compensation for decades, and now it is finally being paid.”
The IBCA, headquartered in Newcastle, currently employs about 20 claims managers but plans to expand to a workforce of up to 500. The organization is expected to operate for five to seven years.
Over the years, various government schemes have provided support to victims, but ministers long insisted that the infected had received the “best available treatment at the time.” Langstaff’s final report, however, concluded that the scandal was largely preventable and that key documents had been lost or deliberately destroyed.
The government has accepted the inquiry’s recommendation for compensation, with approximately £1 billion in interim payments already distributed to infected individuals and bereaved partners. In October 2024, it was announced that the estates of deceased victims would also be eligible for interim payments.
Andy Evans, Chair of the campaign group Tainted Blood, expressed concerns over continued delays, calling it a “scandal” that the previous government failed to act on Langstaff’s 2023 interim recommendations. “There is a real fear that people will not receive their compensation before it’s too late,” he warned.
The IBCA confirmed that the first regulation enabling payments came into effect in August 2024, and the forthcoming regulations will extend compensation eligibility to thousands of previously excluded families. The IBCA stated, “We will review the second set of regulations once published and incorporate them into our claims process.”
While these legislative changes mark a significant step forward, victims and their families continue to push for timely and adequate compensation, hoping that justice will not come too late.
