Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2025 to Question 25004 on Infected Blood Compensation Scheme: Hepatitis, what steps he is taking to improve the application process for compensation (a) in general and (b) for people with a line of succession to victims.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The delivery of compensation payments, including the application process, is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). IBCA made its first payments to a small cohort of eligible infected people in December 2024, and has steadily increased the number of people invited to claim. This “test and learn” approach of trialling a system with a small number of people is to make sure it works properly, before increasing the number of users. The Government expects payments to eligible affected people to begin this year. Both the Government and IBCA remain committed to ensuring payments are made as soon as possible.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2025 to Question 25004 on Infected Blood Compensation Scheme: Hepatitis, what assessment he has made of the sufficiency of funding for compensation for the affected families of people with hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In the Autumn budget, the Government announced £11.8 billion of funding to compensate eligible infected and affected people. Each eligible person will get the compensation they are due.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when affected family members of people with blood infected by hepatitis B will be able to apply for compensation.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Those affected by their relationship to an eligible individual infected with Hepatitis B will be able to claim via the compensation scheme. This may include partners, parents, children, and siblings of an eligible infected person, as well as some people who acted as a carer for an infected person. The delivery of compensation payments is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority. The Government expects payments to eligible affected people to begin this year, following a second set of regulations that I will be laying in Parliament in the coming weeks.