Posted: 6-Jun-2005 << BACK
The Scottish Executive was defeated yesterday over a ring-fence put round cash pay-outs for relatives of hepatitis C sufferers infected by contaminated NHS blood products.
Hundreds of Scots have received payments of between 20,000 and 45,000 under the UK-wide Skipton Fund scheme pledged by Westminster and Holyrood ministers on August 29, 2003.
Relatives of those who died before then were not entitled to claim and a bar was put on payments to dependants of those who died after July 5, 2004, if the sufferer had not applied while alive. But the Holyrood Health Committee yesterday backed moves to scrap the restrictions, enabling relatives of all those infected through NHS blood products in Scotland to make a claim.
Rhona Brankin, the Deputy Health Minister, had argued that the ex-gratia payments were not compensation but to help those infected through the NHS to live with their illness. But several MSPs said it was inconsistent and unjust to pay out only to some dependants.
Kate Maclean, of Labour, and the Lib Dem health spokesman Mike Rumbles defied party colleagues to ensure that the Executive lost key votes by five to two with one abstention. The amendments had been tabled by Shona Robison, the SNP Shadow Health Minister, to the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Bill, now going through Parliament.
By a Scotland Correspondent
