Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Infected Blood Inquiry, how many people were infected by contaminated blood; how many of those died as a consequence; and how many are now eligible for interim compensation payments under the Infected Blood Support Scheme.

The Infected Blood Inquiry’s terms of reference include the task to “ascertain, as far as practicable, the likely numbers of people who have been infected (directly or indirectly) in consequence of: a) the use of infected blood; and b) the use of infected blood products”.

To this end, the Inquiry’s Statistical Expert Group has published two reports. The first, published in September 2022, contains estimated numbers of people infected by blood and blood products as well as estimated numbers of those people who subsequently died; however, this excludes those with Hepatitis B and secondary infections. The second supplementary report, published in July 2023, updates the Committee’s estimates of the numbers of people who died because of their infection. Due to its size, a copy of the first report has been placed in the Library. A copy of the second report is attached.

In July, the Inquiry published a note on interim compensation payments made on behalf of the Government by the four national Infected Blood Support Schemes. The note shows the number of people registered and payments made as of July 2023; however, information on the numbers of eligible people is not available. A copy of the note is attached.