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Jeremy Hunt is expected to unveil a multibillion-pound compensation package for victims of the UK’s contaminated blood scandal, in an attempt to bring closure to families who have waited more than half a century for redress.
The chancellor’s announcement is set to follow the conclusion on Monday of a seven-year public inquiry into the more than 30,000 people who were treated with blood that was contaminated with HIV and other diseases in the 1970s and 1980s.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also expected to issue an official apology on behalf of the UK government after publication of the final report of the inquiry, which was led by Sir Brian Langstaff, according to people briefed on the plan.
Treasury officials have acknowledged that the cost of compensation, expected to be as high as £10bn, will be reflected in official forecasts at the time of the next Autumn Statement, which may not happen until after the upcoming general election.
The compensation bill, expected to be paid for through government borrowing, will constrain the already tight budgets of whichever party forms the next government.
“Rishi Sunak and I both believe the delays have gone on too long and now is the time for justice,” Hunt told the Sunday Times newspaper.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said on Sunday that “all parties are going to have to take some pretty heavy criticism on the chin when Sir Brian reports tomorrow, including us”.
He told the BBC that he hoped the government was going to do the “right thing” and that Sunak would have Labour’s “wholehearted support”.
“We will make sure that victims have the certainty of knowing that if there’s a change of government later this year, a Labour government will honour that commitment,” Streeting said.
The UK government, which previously accepted the “moral case” for compensation, has distributed about £400mn to infected individuals and bereaved partners via interim payments of £100,000.
But Langstaff recommended last year that £100,000 be offered swiftly to thousands of bereaved family members and victims who had not yet received any payment.
Conservative ministers had been accused of delaying full liability for the bill until after the Spring Budget earlier this year so that they could push ahead with pre-election tax cuts, claims the government denied.
Between 1970 and the early 1990s, tens of thousands of men, women and children were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through tainted blood transfusions and infected blood products originating in the US.
About 2,900 of them are believed to have died. Many victims had haemophilia, a condition that inhibits blood clotting and requires a white lyophilised powder called Factor VIII to be administered to patients.
