Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will remove the restriction that prohibits the publication of official government documents relating to the contaminated blood scandal under the 100-year rule.

The Department has transferred records to The National Archives that relate to contaminated blood. There are parts of the documents which are not publicly available as they relate to personal information about named individuals. The names and other identifying information are closed to the public until the individual has reached 100 years of age.

The publication of the names of patients, or other identifying information such as their address and medical condition, would breach their privacy under the Data Protection Act. When the individual reaches 100 years of age, the unredacted documents will be made available. This is consistent with other records held by The National Archives which contains personal and sensitive information.