Yesterday (14 August), Sir Robert Francis published his further recommendations to government to address concerns and issues with the current infected blood compensation proposals.
Sir Robert Francis is the interim chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA).
The recommendations and report follow a period of engagement by Sir Robert with people infected and affected by infected blood. The Hepatitis C Trust’s input to this process was summarised here.
The recommendations
Sir Robert has made 74 recommendations about improving on the initial proposals for the compensation scheme. These recommendations suggest changes to the initial proposals for compensation published by the Cabinet Office in May, but do not propose new indicative compensation levels. Instead they suggest several areas for further review by the Expert Advisory Group, including the proposed severity bands for hepatitis B and C and eligibility for an equivalent to the Special Category Mechanism.
The recommendations include:
- Payments from the Infected Blood Support Schemes should continue, should be kept separate from compensation, and should only be deducted from compensation for future care costs and future financial losses.
- People should have the choice of receiving regular payments for the rest of their lives or to receive their entire award as a lump sum.
- The severity bands should be reconsidered; this should include clinical impacts of HCV beyond liver-specific ill health, and psychiatric and mental health-related impacts.
- Detailed reasoning of the proposed figures for awards should be published, to ensure that people can understand how these have been arrived at, and have a better idea what they are likely to receive.
- Funding for legal support and financial advice should be made available to those due compensation, in light of the administrative burden of submitting and managing an application for compensation.
- A review of the scheme should be conducted after a year.
- There should be an additional award for loss of autonomy to those who were unethically involved in research without their consent, with a higher level where this involved children.
- There should be an increase in the social impact award for some affected people.
- It should be made clear that support and compensation payments are tax-free and should not be considered when assessing someone’s right to benefits.
- Greater clarity is required on how the tariffs were calculated and how the compensation scheme will be administered.
Next steps
The Government is obliged to lay the regulations that establish the compensation scheme on or before 24 August, in accordance with the Victims and Prisoners Act.
Sir Robert has stated that Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and the member of Government with responsibility for responding to the Infected Blood Inquiry, has pledged a response to these new recommendations on the functioning of the compensation scheme “very soon” and we are expecting the Government’s response to the recommendations on Friday 16 August.
The Hepatitis C Trust have been invited to meet with Mr Thomas-Symonds on Thursday 15 August. We will provide a further update following this meeting and the Government’s publication.