HIV Eligibility Start Date

In his oral evidence to the Inquiry, the Minister for the Cabinet Office agreed to look again at the Scheme's eligibility criteria for people infected with HIV. The Inquiry went on to recommend that the scheme should be open to those who were infected with HIV before 1982. The Government commits to amend the scheme to remove the 1982 start date, meaning anyone infected with HIV because of treatment with infected blood or blood products will be eligible for compensation, irrespective of the year they were infected. Whilst there will be no start date for eligibility to the scheme, the financial loss award requires a date of first possible infection (for instances where a specific date cannot be identified). In these cases the date will mirror the start date for Hepatitis which is 1952. The Inquiry's Report noted that doing this was 'unlikely to give rise to any injustice'.

We were in a position to immediately accept - and address - some of these recommendations. These regulatory changes came into force in December 2025. As a result of these changes: Anyone infected with HIV as a result of infected blood treatment received before 1st January 1982 is now eligible for compensation.