Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Will the Paymaster confirm how many chronic Hepatitis B and chronic Hepatitis C victims received their compensation and how many do the IBCA intend to review because of administrative mistakes on the redefinition of chronic Hepatitis B.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) continuously seeks to improve and add detail as it learns from real claims. On clinical matters, IBCA seeks regular advice from clinical advisers to ensure that their approach adequately reflects clinical understanding in line with the regulations.
Within the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, there is a provision that permits IBCA to reclaim amounts of money that are, following a review process, found to have been overpayments. This is an important protection, both against error and against fraudulent claims.
The Regulations give IBCA the discretion not to recover payments in certain circumstances, such as where the overpayment was IBCA’s fault, enabling decisions that are humane, fair and proportionate. When making a decision on whether to exercise this discretion, IBCA must have regard to wider public law principles and the requirements of managing public money. IBCA is not able to publish information on compensation claims that provides detail on applicants’ infections. This is to ensure the privacy of applicants is adequately protected.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to provide public funding for legal representation for people making infected blood compensation claims.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Government has accepted the moral case for compensation. The details of how a compensation scheme would be delivered, including whether public funding would be provided for legal representation, is yet to be determined.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to appoint the Chair of the infected blood compensation arms length body.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Government has not yet taken a decision on accepting the recommendations of the Inquiry’s second interim report and will continue to update Parliament in due course on this matter.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make a comparative assessment of the number of people who died from (a) heart attacks, (b) cancer, (c) strokes and (d) flu from 1 January to 31 March (i) 2020 and (ii) 2019.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.