Keighley and Ilkley MP Robbie Moore has called on the government to 'act with the quickest speed' to pay compensation to those affected by the infected blood scandal of the 1970s and 80s.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Moore mentioned Ilkley resident Clive Smith, who's the chair of the Haemophilia Society and brought the issue to the MP at one of his first weekly constituency surgeries following his election in 2019.
He said: "We never forget those first meetings. Clive kindly explained to me all the complexities associated with the infected blood inquiry and I gave him my reassurance that I would do all I could in my role as his constituency MP to raise that case."
Thousands of people with haemophilia and other bleeding disorders were infected with HIV and hepatitis viruses through the use of tainted clotting factors in the 1970s and 1980s, with some unintentionally passing it on to their partners.
In August 2022, the government agreed to make the first interim compensation payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims, and bereaved partners. In an interim report, inquiry chairman Brian Langstaff said that the compensation scheme should be extended to cover those infected, their spouses or civil partners, long term cohabitees, children, and the parents of children who had died. In a second set of recommendations, he said interim payments should be extended to children who have lost a parent.
Calling on the government to take swift action on the matter, Mr Moore said: “Two of most valuable assets that all of us in this Chamber have are our health and our time. Unfortunately, all those who have been infected and affected throughout these terrible circumstances, going back to the 1970s and 1980s, have had both of those valuable assets impacted or removed from them one way or another. Both their health and their time have been taken away from them.
“Time is of the essence, and I call on the Government to act with the quickest of speed, because one person is dying from their original infection every four days, and that is not fair.”
đŠ¸INFECTED BLOOD INQUIRY - Action is needed now. Between the 1970s and 1980s, approximately 5,000 persons with...
Posted by Robbie Moore MP on Tuesday, June 27, 2023
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