Public Inquiry

Infected Blood Inquiry

Status: Completed Chair: Sir Brian Langstaff Established: Sep 2018 Report: May 2024 Commissioned by: Cabinet Office

Examining how thousands of NHS patients were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. Found the scandal could largely have been avoided and victims were failed by the NHS, government, and blood …

Response breakdown

103 recommendations total

72%

27%

74 (72%) — Accepted

28 (27%) — Accepted in Part

1 (1%) — Under Review

Reports & milestones

Reports

09 Jul 2025 26 tracked recs Additional Report on Compensation · Tracked recommendations · PDF

20 May 2024 58 tracked recs Infected Blood Inquiry Final Report · Tracked recommendations · PDF

29 Jul 2022 1 tracked rec First Interim Report · Tracked recommendations · PDF

05 Apr 2023 18 tracked recs Second Interim Report · Tracked recommendations · PDF

Timeline

11 Jul 2017 Inquiry Announced Prime Minister Theresa May announced a public inquiry. · Source

11 Jul 2017 Chair Appointed Sir Brian Langstaff appointed as Chair.

25 Jul 2018 Terms of Referenc… Terms of Reference published. · Source

30 Apr 2019 Hearings Begin Public hearings commenced.

19 Jul 2022 First Interim Rep… Interim report on compensation framework. · Source

05 Apr 2023 Second Interim Re… Second interim report with further compensation recommendations.

20 May 2024 Final Report Publ… Final report published finding decades of cover-up. · Source

21 May 2024 Government Apology Prime Minister issued full apology in Parliament. · Source

Recommendations

18 shown (filtered)

Code	Recommendation	Addressed to	Response
IR2-1	Scheme Eligibility - Infected and Affected Persons I recommend that the scheme should offer redress to those infected with HCV and/or HIV, and/or HBV (limited to chronic HBV unless …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-2	Eligibility Conditions for Infected Persons I recommend that the conditions of eligibility for admission of relevant infected persons to the scheme should be that: a) they have …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-3	Standard of Proof and Automatic Eligibility As above, save that (a) the last bullet point should read: "eligibility is accepted if the information available points towards eligibility and …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-4	Affected Persons Categories I recommend that the following relevant affected persons should be admitted to the scheme: a) spouses, civil partners and long term cohabitees …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-5	Classification of Infections and Severity I recommend that infections eligible for compensation should be classified in the following manner: a) there should be defined categories for each …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-6	Categories of Loss and Award Heads I recommend that the appropriate award in any case should be composed under the following categories of loss, applicable to both eligible …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-7	No Exemplary Damages but Court Access Preserved I recommend that there should be no award for exemplary damages, though it should remain open to a claimant to pursue such …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-8	Tariff-Based Compensation Framework I recommend that the Government should approve a scheme setting out a framework of tariff based compensation for eligible infected and affected …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-9	Status of Awards and Legal Rights I recommend that, with reference to the status of awards: a) eligible infected and affected persons should not be required to accept …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-10	Form of Awards - Lump Sum and Periodical Payments I recommend that: a) awards should be made in a lump sum in respect of an Injury Impact Award, Social Impact Award, …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-11	Interest on Past Losses I recommend that interest be payable on awards for past financial losses and past provision of care, from the date of infection …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-12	Interim Payments for Bereaved Families I recommend that an interim payment of £100,000 should be paid to recognise the deaths of people to date unrecognised and alleviate …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-13	Relationship with Support Schemes and Benefits I recommend that, with regard to the relationship between compensation, support payments and benefits: a) in assessing compensation under the scheme, no …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-14	Arms Length Body Administration I recommend that an Arms Length Body (ALB) should be set up to administer the compensation scheme, with guaranteed independence of judgement, …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-15	Support Services for Applicants I recommend that the scheme should include provision of the following support services to be provided without charge to the applicant: a) …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-16	Central Delivery with Devolved Support I recommend that the compensation scheme should be delivered by one central body, appropriately resourced and staffed. Current support schemes should however …	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-17	Bespoke Psychological Service I recommend that without delay steps be taken to provide a bespoke psychological service in England.	UK Government	Accepted	View →
IR2-18	Immediate Establishment of Scheme I recommend that a compensation scheme should be set up now and it should begin work this year.	UK Government	Accepted	View →

Parliamentary activity

386 mentions since Sep 2017

52 debates 284 questions 45 statements

15 Jun 2026 Early Day Motion Infected Blood Inquiry compensation
Lisa Smart (Liberal Democrat)

19 May 2026 Written Question Infected Blood Inquiry: Costs
Mike Wood (Conservative)

13 May 2026 Early Day Motion Redress for people impacted by surgical mesh, sodium valproate and Primodos
Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat)

14 Apr 2026 Written Ministerial Statement Update on the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour)

14 Apr 2026 Written Ministerial Statement Update on the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour)

View all 386 mentions →

Costs

Total: £146,162,778

Period	Total	Inquiry legal	CP legal	Source
Mar 2025 (cum.)	£146,162,778	£67,290,993	£27,242,761	link
Mar 2025	£5,511,059	£1,514,906	£603,277	link
Mar 2024	£10,301,344	£5,354,237	£937,131	link
Mar 2023	£28,254,992	£11,694,492	£7,154,110	link
Mar 2022	£32,522,939	£15,491,533	£5,778,813	link
Mar 2021	£34,270,948	£20,797,365	£4,505,612	link
Mar 2020	£25,992,907	£9,959,119	£5,742,876	link
Mar 2019	£9,308,693	£2,479,341	£2,520,943	link