See below the most recent update from Sir Robert Francis KC (Chair) and David Foley (Chief Executive) 

Hello,

Since the long-awaited announcement in May that compensation will be paid in recognition of the wrongs inflicted by the infected blood scandal, we have been discussing the Government’s proposals with groups of people who represent a broad range of those who have suffered so terribly. This will ensure the Government can take into account what you think in finalising its proposals and to consider how a compensation scheme will work in practice. Time to do this was necessarily limited because of the legal requirements for the relevant regulations to be made by 23 August.

An enormous thank you to everyone who took the time and energy to do this, and also to all of you for your ongoing understanding as we get the Infected Blood Compensation Authority up and running as quickly as possible. The dignity and commitment shown by all those who we met humbles us and has strengthened our determination to get a compassionate, fair, effective and transparent process up and running as soon as possible.

Inevitably, setting up an organisation capable of delivering this is complicated and we feel getting it right for the community is just as important as speed. We are only too aware that all those who are entitled to compensation have already waited too long; far too long.  So we know it’s very important that we’re open about our progress and keep you informed and involved. We’re sorry we weren’t able to start these updates sooner because of the election period, but this regular note aims to ensure you’re kept updated from now on.

Our progress so far

Since we published our Statement of Intent in May we’ve been creating an independent body; the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (we’ll refer to it as IBCA for ease). IBCA is focussed on delivering a compensation scheme that’s simple to use, easy to access and securely pays out money as quickly as possible. To do this, the Government is required to lay regulations in Parliament setting out the scheme, which needs to happen before we can deliver the payments process and start making payments.

In the last two months we’ve started to create the organisation and recruit a team to design and deliver that. We’ll provide more details about the new team in the next update.

Some of the activities we’re already working on include:

• starting to design a compensation service, and testing early versions with some of you who volunteered to be involved, with one-to-one interviews this month;
• working out how many case managers – and with what skills – we need to support you as you claim compensation, both online and over the phone depending on your needs and preferences;
• working with existing financial support schemes to understand how we can reduce  the need for you to provide information again (we’ll ask for your agreement where there’s any personal data you haven’t already agreed to share).

We know what you really need to hear is how soon compensation will be paid. We’re aiming for the first payments to be made before the end of 2024, but this does depend on how quickly we can build a service that balances speed with ease of use and data security. 

We’ll need to start small to ensure we get this right, working with you through every stage of the development, and in the meantime we absolutely commit to keeping you updated regularly on how that work is progressing.