UK fast-tracks payments for blood scandal victims
Britain said on Tuesday some victims of a contaminated blood scandal would receive interim payments of 210,000 pounds ($267,000) each before a scheme to pay "comprehensive compensation" is up and running, ideally by the end of the year. - REUTERS
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 We are establishing the Infected Blood Compensation Authority, an arms-length body to administer the compensation scheme.
00:08 The British government on Tuesday said it would set up a body to pay compensation to victims of a tainted blood scandal,
00:13 and added that many were eligible for interim payments of over $260,000 each,
00:19 even before a plan to pay comprehensive compensation is up and running.
00:24 That comes a day after a damning report that blamed the state and doctors for failures that killed over 3,000 people.
00:30 Here's Cabinet Minister John Glenn in Parliament.
00:33 If you have been directly or indirectly infected by NHS blood, blood products,
00:42 or tissue contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C,
00:47 or have developed a chronic infection from blood contaminated with hepatitis B,
00:54 you will be eligible to claim compensation under the scheme.
00:59 Victims and their families held a vigil in Westminster on Sunday.
01:03 Blood transfusions administered by Britain's state-funded National Health Service in the 1970s and 1980s
01:09 resulted in more than 30,000 people contracting hepatitis and HIV.
01:14 Much of the donated blood was sourced from high-risk groups, such as prisoners, and pooled together.
01:20 This is a day of shame for the British state.
01:23 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a "whole-hearted, unequivocal apology" for this terrible injustice on Monday.
01:29 Glenn said that for victims who had died, compensation would be paid to their estates.
01:34 People who cared for victims, such as partners and parents, could apply for compensation in their own right, he said.
01:40 The government did not set out a budget.
01:42 However, press reports have put the total cost at more than £10 billion, or $12.7 billion.