Billions earmarked for haemophiliacs affected by infected blood scandal

People with haemophilia and their families are due to receive part of a £10 billion package offered as compensation for the infected blood scandal in the UK. 

Those living with an HIV infection as a result of receiving contaminated blood products could receive up to £2,615,000, following the adoption of advice offered by the Infected Blood Inquiry Response Expert Group, who published their final report on 20 May 2024. While all people infected and affected by the scandal are due to receive compensation, haemophiliacs were one of the main groups affected as they received contaminated Factor VIII as a treatment for their condition in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Apologising for the failures of successive governments to address the scandal, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a speech: 'Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.'   

He went on: 'Second, it is not enough to say sorry, pay long overdue compensation and then attempt to move on. There can be no moving on from a report that is so devastating in its criticisms.' 

Haemophilia is a genetic condition that stops the blood clotting, and some families lost multiple relatives due to HIV and hepatitis infections acquired through contaminated blood products offered as treatment on the NHS.

Factor VIII is an essential blood clotting protein that is isolated from blood plasma. The UK Government imported Factor VIII from the US, despite it being known to be high risk due to the populations the plasma was collected from. 

The Haemophilia Society was singled out in Volume 4 of the report as playing a role in the way treatment was rolled out to haemophilia patients and the minimisation of risk of blood-borne infection. 

They accepted the findings of the report in a letter to members stating: 'Although Sir Brian acknowledged that the Haemophilia Society acted with good intentions, he concluded that our charity was too slow to react to the risks of AIDS, placed too much reliance on the advice of haemophilia clinician Professor Arthur Bloom and failed to encourage members to decrease their use of factor concentrate. Sir Brian also finds that the Haemophilia Society downplayed the significance of hepatitis C in the early 1990s.

'We accept all Sir Brian's findings and are very grateful to have had the opportunity to play a full and active role in this inquiry.'

It also apologised for a previous apology, published before the announcement of the inquiry in 2017, which its acknowledged came too late.