Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress has been made in the inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal; and if he will make a statement.

The Infected Blood Inquiry chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff (a retired High Court Judge) and sponsored by Cabinet Office has been sitting since September 2018. So far, the inquiry has heard written and oral evidence from hundreds of those ‘infected and affected’.

The next session of the Inquiry will begin in February 2020, when it will hear from its own expert panel on the ‘psycho-social impact’ of infection and what followed for individuals. Evidence from ‘institutional’ witnesses such as from Government and the National Health Service is expected to be sought later this year.