Contaminated blood victims are still being let down by government, say campaigners

Campaigners representing victims of the UK infected blood scandal say that government plans for a compensation scheme “fall far short” of proposals by the former High Court judge leading the public inquiry into the disaster.

The former judge, Brian Langstaff, issued an interim report a year ago calling for a compensation scheme to be set up urgently for people affected by government failings that allowed thousands to be given blood and blood products infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s. The work of the scheme should begin in 2023, he said.1

Last December, when the Victims and Prisoners Bill—introduced to deal with victims of …