A proposed tour of visits by the Paymaster General to victims of the contaminated blood scandal may be a “delaying tactic” for prolonging compensation payments, a Labour MP has said.
During business questions in the Commons, Dame Diana Johnson said she had not been able to receive more information on the visits from John Glen, the Paymaster General, and those affected had not been updated.
Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
Under an initial compensation scheme, only victims themselves or bereaved partners can receive an interim payment of around £100,000.
Last week in the Commons, Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt told Dame Diana, who leads the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood, that Mr Glen was “planning a tour across the UK to meet with particular groups”.
On Thursday, Dame Diana told the Commons: “Last week the leader (of the House) told me that the Paymaster General was going to have a tour around the United Kingdom to meet all those infected and affected – or the groups of the infected and affected – in the contaminated blood scandal.
“I’ve had a letter from the Paymaster General which doesn’t give me any more information, and also all the groups are telling me that they’ve had no contact with the Paymaster General’s office to organise that tour.
“It’s nine weeks until Sir Brian (Langstaff) produces his final report on the Infected Blood Inquiry, is it possible to have a statement from the Paymaster General so we can all understand exactly what is happening and what this tour is going to do, because a lot of people are concerned that it may be a delaying tactic, and what we all want to do is get compensation to these people who’ve been infected and affected.”
Ms Mordaunt replied: “I have met again this week with the Paymaster General. He is working and he is making good progress towards getting this resolved.
“I know this is frustrating for (Dame Diana) and all those involved with her all-party parliamentary group, but I know that the Paymaster General will come to this House at the first available opportunity to give an update on these matters.
“We are now moving towards the end of this process. What the Paymaster General has discussed with me has given me confidence in that respect.”
Later in the same session Labour MP Liam Byrne flagged that the Department of Business and Trade has failed to publish a memorandum on compensation relating to the Horizon subpostmaster scandal.
The Group Litigation Order (GLO) group refers to the initial 555 subpostmasters led by Alan Bates who brought to light the Post Offices’ faulty Horizon accounting software, in what has been branded the biggest miscarriage of justice in British legal history.
Mr Byrne, who is the chairman of the Business and Trade Committee, said no other department had missed the deadline in publication.
He told MPs: “The greater the scandal, the greater the obligation on our society to act with speed and clarity to provide remedies.
“Notwithstanding yesterday’s welcome news on the Horizon Scandal Bill, we haven’t acted fast enough and now we’re not acting with enough clarity because the Department for Business and Trade is more than a fortnight late in providing the explanatory memorandum for its supplementary estimates.
“No other department has missed the deadline, only the Department for Business and Trade.
“Now we cannot see where the budget might lie for remedies and redress for the GLO litigants, whose heroic tenacity actually allowed us to overturn the convictions that the Bill proposes, so can (Ms Mordaunt) join me in urging the department to supply that explanatory memorandum quickly, and if not can we have a debate in Government time to get to the bottom of what on earth is going on?”
Ms Mordaunt said she would ensure the department heard Mr Byrne’s concerns.
She stated: “(Mr Byrne) will know the complex issues that surround this Bill and the work that has gone on to ensure that the Bill is brought to the House in the best form possible, that it can make swift passage through this House, and I know there is concurrent activity to ensure that what it enables is ready to be implemented once it leaves this House and gains royal assent.”
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