Oral Answers to Questions

Jessica Morden Excerpts

Thursday 27th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

That is exactly it. My hon. Friend is completely right.

[Jessica Morden (Newport East) (Lab)]

There are real concerns that bereaved parents who lost their children to the contaminated blood scandal could be omitted from future compensation packages for victims, as they were with the ex gratia payments. I have written to the Paymaster General about this. Please will she meet me and the Smith family, who tragically lost their son Colin, aged just seven, after he was infected with blood from Arkansas prison? This is about acknowledging their loss, and it is the very least they deserve, given the injustices that they have endured.

[The Paymaster General (Penny Mordaunt)]

I would be very happy to meet the hon. Lady and any of the victims of this appalling scandal. I raised this issue at the recent meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on haemophilia and contaminated blood, and I want to let all those people who have lost children know that just because we published the written ministerial statement, which made reference to other support for other individuals, that does not mean that they are not at the forefront of our minds. The compensation study that we recently announced will obviously be looking at many of the issues that they have raised, but I would be happy to meet them.