This inaction on providing the money for compensation comes despite this in a letter signed by Jeremy Hunt in August 2022:

“The victims and their families deserve nothing other than the complete and immediate acceptance of Sir Brian's recommendation. To refuse to do so would simply continue the injustice thus far handed out by the state to a group of innocent victims condemned to years of suffering and neglect.”

Richard Angell, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, responded to today’s inaction, saying: 

“Before re-joining the government 18 months ago, Jeremy Hunt as an experienced former Health Secretary spoke the truth: the victims of the Contaminated Blood Scandal and their families deserve nothing other than the complete and immediate acceptance of Sir Brian’s recommendations on compensation. Now Jeremy Hunt has the power to bring about justice it is a travesty he hasn’t done it.

“There are no excuses for the government having failed to implement the Infected Blood Inquiry’s full and final recommendations on compensation that were published over 11 months ago. There has never been any need to wait for the final inquiry report to be published but still that is given as a reason for the delays.

“Since the government received the recommendations on compensation it is estimated that at least an additional 84 infected victims have died. The reality is that the choice made to exclude funding compensation from the budget will mean that many more victims will now die without the justice of financial redress. It is clear that the chancellor knows what the impact of the choices he has made today will be. That he still did this to the victims of the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS makes this so much more disappointing.”