Contaminated Blood

Edward Leigh Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)]

I echo the right hon. Member for Knowsley (Mr Howarth) in describing this as a debt of honour. That, I think, sums up what the debate is all about. We caused this. We did not cause it personally, of course, but it was caused by the state and the national health service, so we are responsible.

I congratulate all Members who have spoken—particularly, of course, my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt), who has campaigned so effectively. I also pay tribute to my late friend Jim Dobbin. As has already been mentioned, his memorial service took place yesterday, and, in paying tribute to him, the Bishop of Southwark described him as an MP of causes. I know the House of Commons and politicians are often criticised, perhaps quite rightly, but I think this debate shows the House of Commons at its best. There are many MPs, like Jim, who do not necessarily see their political life as one of holding high office but who realise we are here to try to promote causes, particularly as, because of our constituency system, when we speak here we often do so because our constituents have approached us. In other political systems Members of national Parliaments are perhaps more remote.

One national politician who is not remote is the shadow Secretary of State, the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham). We are all very grateful that he is here today given his other responsibilities, and I am working with him on another issue where people’s lives have been ruined through no fault of their own. We value his presence here today.

I have said that many of us are here today because of constituents, and I am here because of my constituent Gary Jones from Scotter, who has raised this issue with me several times. I want to share some of his thoughts with the House. First, however, may I make an apology: I am on the Panel of Chairs and quite soon I will have to go and chair a private Bill, so I may miss the winding-up speeches.

As I have said, I want to talk about the issues Gary Jones has raised and, in particular the Irish compensation scheme. Before doing so, however, I want to echo and emphasise what my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Sir Gerald Howarth) said in an intervention as it makes the point very clearly. I have already said this once and I will say it again, and it will be said several times during this debate: let right be done.

We caused this, and we have to put it right. The state—or the establishment—is responsible. I do not know who is really responsible—probably no particular individual; no doubt everybody was trying their best—but there has been gross negligence over several decades, since perhaps as early as the 1940s when the viral risks associated with the blood products in question were known and patients were not informed. One of the greatest scandals in all this is that so many patients have been kept in the dark.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

My hon. Friend said that this was an example of gross negligence by the state. In addition to what the Penrose inquiry will show that is specific to the contaminated blood issue, does he agree this is also an opportunity for us to set some guidelines and rules for those occasions when there are failures by the state health service on how it will deal with compensation so that we avoid a patchwork of problems similar to those that affected our constituents?

[Sir Edward Leigh]

I entirely agree, and I do not think this is just a question of money. If we attack the Government just in terms of money, we might not succeed in this campaign. It is also a question of learning lessons, and what the victims want above all is some sense of involvement in future schemes. We must learn lessons, and I am sure we are doing so.

The screening of blood donors was totally inadequate, allowing those with a history of jaundice to donate. Even in response to the rise of AIDS the Government failed to implement the best technology available at the time to render blood products safe. The results of this neglect have been appalling: the infection of over 5,000 haemophiliacs with hepatitis B and C, over 1,000 of whom were also infected with HIV from NHS blood products, resulting in 2,500 deaths. Although there has been compensation in many cases, it has been inadequate—indeed, they would claim it has been miserly. For instance, although there is a one-off payment available for hepatitis stage 1, there is no ongoing payment. All this is plainly unacceptable; I think everybody who has spoken agrees with that. It is also obvious that there must be a suitable scheme for compensation to the victims—not that any monetary amount can repair the damage that has been done.

The Irish scheme has perhaps not received as much attention as it should have done in this debate so far, and again I am quoting here from the arguments given to me by my constituent. It is not, as I am afraid some of my hon. and right hon. Friends on the Front Bench have suggested, that we want to link the UK compensation payment scheme to that which exists in Ireland. It is worth repeating that campaigners have never expressed a wish to place the Government’s funding of any compensation scheme in Irish hands. For myself, I do not suggest that the compensation should be exactly the same, but the Irish scheme is worth looking at in terms of compassion: it puts compassion first; it accepts liability; and it is substantial enough for the victims to gain closure. So I encourage Ministers to look further into the compensation scheme the Republic of Ireland has established and to see what lessons might be applicable to us here in the UK.

[Jenny Willott]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that, because we are talking about quite a small number of people, fairly generous packages of compensation would be affordable? We are not looking at millions of people; we are looking at a small number of people who have suffered very seriously as a result of the NHS.

[Sir Edward Leigh]

Yes, I want to deal with that point, and I am glad that the hon. Lady has made that intervention. I can quite understand where the Government are coming from, but both my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot and I—and others who have spoken—cannot ever be accused of wanting to waste public money. We are very aware of the pressures on Government. Again I am grateful to my constituent for some of the figures that have been given to me. He says—and I hope the Minister will reply to this point—that:

“The figures quoted in the Written Ministerial Statement are completely incorrect. The Government have refuted suggestions that they based their calculations on a typographical error in the Archer Report and claim that the costings were based on an average of £750,000 per person. The CEO of the Irish Haemophilia Society has confirmed that the average figures paid out in Ireland was ‘around €350,000’ per person.”

So the total figure we are talking about here is £1.5 billion. That is very similar to the compensation paid to the victims of Equitable Life. I have campaigned on Equitable Life, as we all have, and it is pretty awful for someone to lose their life savings and there was appalling suffering, but at the end of the day they have lost their savings; they have not lost their life. So if we are prepared to pay this sort of compensation to the victims of Equitable Life, why do we baulk at similar figures for those whose whole lives have been ruined, and ultimately many of them lost?

My hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Caroline Dinenage) put it very well:

“I recently met a delegation of people who had suffered through the Equitable Life disaster. Although I have every sympathy with their plight, today’s debate puts that matter into perspective because we are talking not about the loss of life savings, but about the loss of life itself, loss of livelihood and of the chance to grow old, and losing the chance to become a parent and see one’s children grow up.”—[Official Report, 14 October 2010; Vol. 516, c. 556-7.]

I could not put it any better, and I end on the following point. We recognise that we are at fault. We recognise that these people’s lives have been ruined. We recognise that the current compensation scheme has not fulfilled their expectations and is not fair. Let right be done.