The chairman of the tainted blood inquiry on Friday called for victims and their families to be paid “without delay” after proposing the level of interim compensation payments. Sir Brian Langstaff said those infected and bereaved colleagues should be given “payments of at least £100,000”. Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, which is representing some of the victims, said he would put pressure on the government on Monday after Boris Johnson was told to pay the interim sums to those affected immediately and before more die. The recommendation for direct payments was backed by former health secretaries Jeremy Hunt, Matt Hancock and Andy Burnham. At least 2,400 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C as a result of receiving contaminated blood on the NHS in the 1970s and 1980s, and around 30,000 people became seriously ill. The scandal has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. An open letter to the prime minister this month, signed by organizations including the Haemophilia Society and the Terrence Higgins Trust, said 419 people had died between July 2017, when the investigation was announced, and February this year. He said it had been reported that one infected person died every four days. Ross Cooper, who contracted hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products as a child, described news of the interim recommendation as a “great development”. Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it’s a testament to how much has been revealed that will support this claim.” Cooper, who started taking blood clotting products when she was less than six months old, said her hepatitis C infection had left her unable to work. “It’s been the controlling factor in my life since I found out I had it as a teenager,” Cooper said. He said he had mental health problems and fatigue: “The mental side effects of being told you’re going to die in your 20s was huge.” He added that it had been “made worse” by having to “struggle ever since, try to get some level of recognition of justice from successive governments”. Hunt echoed Collins, calling for payments to be made “immediately” to all victims and bereaved associates. Appearing on the Today programme, he called on ministers to act before more victims die. “I would just urge ministers to recognize that time is of the essence and just waiting, you know, a few months until, say, the leadership campaign is resolved and the new prime minister makes the decision, will mean that a few more people are likely to have die,” he said. “We should do it immediately. We waited too long. Successive governments, of which I was part of one, did not act as quickly as they should have and we must recognize this as a terrible, terrible injustice.” Hancock said the government had a “moral duty” to compensate victims of the scandal and said it was “confident” it would do so. Burnham, a former health secretary and current mayor of Greater Manchester, said there could be a case for manslaughter charges. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The Cabinet Office said on Saturday it would act on the compensation recommendations “with the utmost urgency” and that a copy of the inquiry’s report would be put to MPs “as soon as parliament reconvenes” – in September. A spokesman said: “The Government is grateful to Sir Brian Langstaff for his interim report on interim compensation for victims of tainted blood. “We recognize how important this will be to infected and affected people across the UK and can confirm that the Government will consider Sir Brian’s report and Sir Robert Francis QC’s recommendations with the utmost urgency and will reply as soon as possible. A copy of the report will be tabled in Parliament as soon as Parliament reconvenes.”
