Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have been infected with HIV and hepatitis C through treatment with NHS-supplied blood or blood products; how much his Department has paid to patients so infected with those diseases to date; and if he will make a statement.

Published data estimates that around 4,700 people with bleeding disorders (such as haemophilia) and around 28,000 other people were exposed to hepatitis C in the United Kingdom. This information is from the UK Haemophilia Doctors’ Organisation 2011 annual report. Around 1,200 people with bleeding disorders and 100 other individuals were infected with HIV through treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood products or blood transfusions in the UK. Many of those infected with HIV were also infected with hepatitis C.

To date over £390 million has been paid out in the UK through the schemes, since they were set up in 1988.