ICTims and famelies affected by the infected blood scandal must have their £100,000 in compensation paid “immediately”, their lawyer has demanded.
The inquiry’s chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, said the money should be paid “immediately” to more than 2,000 surviving victims and Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, has demanded it be paid within 14 days.
Speak with BBC radio 4’s The World Tonight programme, Mr Collins said: “When I say immediately, I don’t mean within three months, I mean immediately.
“It should be within a few days or weeks. I would have said 14 days is not an unreasonable time to set the wheels in motion and we will ask for that on Monday.”
In his report, Sir Brian pointed out that the government should not take the recommendations to heart, but said his report on interim payments “was not the end of the investigation and the issue of compensation”.
He also admitted that not everyone would benefit from the recommended payment arrangement.
“I have decided to recommend that interim payments of not less than £100,000 be made to all infected people, and to all dependents currently registered with the schemes and those registering between now and the start of any future scheme.
“I know this will be disappointing to some of you who may not fall into either category and I apologize for that. I ask those who are disappointed to remember that this is not the end of the work of the investigation.”
It comes after a report was published in June on Sir Robert’s interim payments, which was studying options for a compensation framework for victims of the tainted blood tragedy.
The investigation was set up to investigate how thousands of patients in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
About 2,400 people died in what has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
In a letter to Paymaster General Michael Ellis accompanying the report, Sir Brian said: “It was the strength of Sir Robert Francis QC’s recommendation for an interim payment, as reinforced by him in the course of his oral evidence for the inquiry. , which prompted me to think about whether I should exercise my powers to make such a report.
“I believed that basic justice required me to think about this question. No submission submitted to me argued that I should not make a recommendation.
“After considering the submissions and considering the evidence this research has heard of serious physical and mental suffering from a wide range of backgrounds, in different places and in different personal circumstances, I felt it appropriate to write this report. to make .
“I recommend the following: (1) An interim payment should be made without undue delay to all infected and all surviving dependents currently registered with UK infected blood aid schemes, and those registering between now and the commencement of any future settlement; (2) The amount must not be less than £100,000 as recommended by Sir Robert Francis, QC.”