Meeting of the Parliament 30 April 2024
I thank members from across the chamber for their contributions to this short but important debate. I also thank members of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for their contributions to the discussion on the issue this morning. I am grateful for all the useful questions and important points that have been raised today, and I welcome the committee’s proposal that it will write to the UK Government to set out some of the concerns that stakeholders have raised.
I know that all of us in the chamber want to put the needs of the victims of this terrible tragedy first. As a result, I hope that we can all agree that the right thing to do now is to make concrete progress on delivering the arrangements for compensation. Those who have been infected and affected have waited for far too long to see progress being made, and many of the relatives of those who have sadly died have so far received nothing or only relatively small amounts of financial support.
As I have set out, the main parts of the UK Government amendments deliver the key recommendation of the infected blood inquiry by setting up the infected blood compensation authority. That authority, which will be legally established on royal assent after passing of the Victims and Prisoners Bill, will deliver the infected blood compensation scheme. The amendments will also ensure that people in Scotland will have access to the compensation scheme on the same basis as those elsewhere in the UK and that many bereaved families will get the opportunity to receive interim compensation while the final scheme is being set up.
Much of the detail of the scheme will have to be set out in regulations. I know that that creates uncertainty for victims, but I will work to ensure that the regulations work for all infected and affected victims in Scotland. In response to Paul Sweeney, I note that I will raise with the Cabinet Office some of the points that members have raised today.
I ask members to support the motion that has been lodged in my name so that we can finally begin to make progress on providing compensation to all the people who were affected so badly by the terrible tragedy that took place.