The Scottish Government takes all reasonable steps to offer an HCV test to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who has not been tested for HCV.
Since then (summary written by this site)
In September 2025, Jenni Minto, Minister for Public Health and Women's Health, stated that the recommendation "has therefore been fully implemented" following an awareness campaign launched in October 2016, an evaluation completed in 2018, and letters sent to clinicians by the Chief Medical Officer (Jenni Minto, Sep 2025). In October 2016, the Scottish Government announced that around 400,000 posters and leaflets were being distributed to GP surgeries, hospitals, and pharmacies to alert those potentially affected (Scottish Government, Oct 2016). Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport, had initially accepted the inquiry's recommendation in March 2015, stating that ministers would consider carefully how to take it forward (Shona Robison response, Mar 2015).
Written QuestionHouse of LordsBaroness Bowles of Berkhamsted · Liberal Democrat
Asked: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 22 November (HL3771), what assessment they have made of the critiques by the Penrose Inquiry into Equitable Life summarised in points (a) – (e) of Appendix IV paragraph 1.6 of FRS …
Answered by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: FRS 27 has addressed many of the critiques made by the Penrose Inquiry in the development of IFRS 17, except for the differences between the accounting bases for regulatory and financial reporting. Insurance is inherently a complex business so some complexity in the related financial reporting is inevitable. However, a standardised basis for financial reporting will go a long way …
Written QuestionHouse of LordsBaroness Bowles of Berkhamsted · Liberal Democrat
Asked: To ask Her Majesty's Government which of the deficiencies in insurance company accounting that were identified by the Penrose Inquiry into Equitable Life have been dealt with by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation; how they were dealt with; and if they were not dealt …
Answered by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy: The Penrose Inquiry into Equitable Life focussed on UK financial and regulatory reporting in the years leading up to 2001, and how they related to the Equitable Life Assurance Society. The Inquiry identified that life insurance company accounts needed a consistent and realistic accounting basis for the preparation of accounts. They recommended the creation of consistent standards for the preparation …
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsDame Diana Johnson · Labour
Asked: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will make additional funding available to the Department of Health to enable improvements in the infected blood support schemes.
Answered by Treasury: The Budget confirmed that the existing health grant for those affected by Thalidomide will continue when the existing funding commitment expires in 2022/23. Infected blood support schemes were established in 2017, following the publication of the Penrose Inquiry, and the government confirmed increased financial support in 2019 for those infected and affected. We will consider any recommendations when the Infected …
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsDame Diana Johnson · Labour
Asked: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the announcement in Budget 2021 that lifetime financial support will be provided for survivors of the Thalidomide scandal, whether the Government plans to provide lifetime financial support to the survivors and victims of the contaminated …
Answered by Treasury: The Budget confirmed that the existing health grant for those affected by Thalidomide will continue when the existing funding commitment expires in 2022/23. Infected blood support schemes were established in 2017, following the publication of the Penrose Inquiry, and the government confirmed increased financial support in 2019 for those infected and affected. We will consider any recommendations when the Infected …
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsDiana Johnson · Labour
Asked: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many documents did the 2015 Penrose Inquiry on contaminated blood in Scotland request from his Department; how many of these requests were (a) accepted and (b) rejected; and how many documents submitted contained redacted information.
Answered by Department of Health: Although the Department was not called to provide witnesses to the Penrose Inquiry, we cooperated fully with Lord Penrose’s requests for documentary evidence, and the Departmental evidence that Lord Penrose used is referenced in his final report. Lord Penrose published the report of his public inquiry into infections acquired in Scotland on 25 March 2015. Nothing was withheld. All documents …
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsDiana Johnson · Labour
Asked: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of documents related to contaminated blood which were previously disclosed to (a) litigants, (b) the 2009 Independent Public Inquiry on NHS Supplied Contaminated Blood and Blood Products, (c) the 2015 Penrose Inquiry into contaminated blood …
Answered by Department of Health: The Department has released a large quantity of relevant papers for inspection by Parliamentarians and the public. Documents covering the period from 1970 to 1985 were published in 2007 and 2009, in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. All relevant documents on blood safety for the period up to 1995 are now available on the National Archives website, …
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsDiana Johnson · Labour
Asked: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether all documents (a) disclosed in previous legal cases and (b) used for previous Departmental reports into contaminated blood were provided to (i) the Independent Public Inquiry on NHS Supplied Contaminated B
Answered by Department of Health: The Department cooperated with Lord Archer and Lord Penrose’s requests for documentary evidence, and the Departmental evidence that Lord Penrose used is referenced in his final report.
Written QuestionHouse of CommonsStephen Kinnock · Labour
Asked: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral statement of 26 March 2015, Official Report, column 1423, on the Penrose Report on contaminated blood, when the Government plans to respond to the findings of that report.
Answered by Department of Health: Lord Penrose made one recommendation in the Final Report, to ‘take all reasonable steps to offer a hepatitis C test to anyone who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 who has not been tested for hepatitis C’ through reminding general practitioners, nurses and other clinical staff of this matter, along with the National Health Service guidance to offer a …
The Penrose Inquiry was established in April 2009 to examine NHS Scotland's involvement in the use of infected blood and blood products, particularly relating to HIV and hepatitis C transmission through blood transfusions and blood products between 1970 and 1991. Lord Penrose published his final report on 25 March 2015.
The inquiry made a single recommendation: that the Scottish Government should take steps to offer testing for hepatitis C to anyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who had not already been tested.
While no formal government response was published, the Scottish Government established a Short-Life Working Group with Health Protection Scotland and Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to develop a testing programme. According to progress updates, this testing programme was established by December 2015.
The limited scope of the Penrose Inquiry's recommendations drew criticism from some affected individuals and campaigners who had hoped for broader findings on accountability and compensation. The progress update notes that the subsequent UK-wide Infected Blood Inquiry, which reported in 2024, made more comprehensive recommendations covering compensation schemes and systemic reforms.
The available evidence indicates that the single recommendation regarding hepatitis C testing was acted upon through the establishment of a testing programme. However, the broader issues of infected blood and blood products continued to be examined through the later UK-wide inquiry, which addressed matters beyond the narrow remit of the Penrose Inquiry.
Reforms attributed to this inquiry · AI-generated- Testing programme for hepatitis C established by Health Protection Scotland and Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service following the inquiry's recommendation
Key facts
Duration: 6 years, 2 monthsTotal reported cost: £12m