HCV Testing for Pre-1991 Transfusion Recipients
Penrose Inquiry · The Penrose Inquiry Final Report · Issued 25 March 2015 · Addressed to: Scottish Government
Government responseScottish Government: Accepted (Mar 2015)
DeliveryScottish Government says completed (Sep 2025)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
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.
Penrose Inquiry, The Penrose Inquiry Final Report · 25 Mar 2015 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
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).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.
Government response
●Scottish Government · Accepted · 26 Mar 2015
Lord Penrose recommends that the Scottish Government should take all reasonable steps to offer a hepatitis C test to anybody who might have been infected before 1991 by a blood transfusion and who has not already been diagnosed. We accept that recommendation and we will consider carefully how to take it forward.
Response document: Penrose Inquiry (ministerial statement), Meeting of the Parliament, 26 March 2015
Delivery
●Scottish Government says completed · 11 Sep 2025
The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation of the SLWG that there should be an awareness raising campaign to encourage people who had (or are likely to have had) a blood transfusion prior to 1991, and who have not already been tested for hepatitis C, to come forward for testing. A targeted awareness raising campaign to encourage such individuals to be tested was launched in October 2016 and an evaluation of the campaign, as recommended by the SLWG, was completed by Health Protection Scotland in 2018. The SLWG also recommended that a Chief Medical Officer letter should be sent to all clinicians in Scotland to remind them of certain risk factors and clinical indicators for HCV infection and making them aware of the recent advances in therapy and thus the benefits of HCV testing. The Chief Medical Officer accordingly wrote to all clinicians in Scotland on 20 September 2016, following up a previous letter issued just after the publication of the Penrose report on 27 March 2015. The Penrose Inquiry’s recommendation has therefore been fully implemented.
From: Written question S6W-40289 (Penrose Inquiry recommendations fully implemented), Jenni Minto, Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
Earlier statements on delivery (0)
●Scottish Government · 9 Oct 2016
An awareness-raising campaign alerting anyone who had a blood transfusion in Scotland before September 1991 to their potential risk of hepatitis C infection will be launched tomorrow.
The measure was recommended by a working group set up by the Scottish Government in the wake of the Penrose Inquiry into infected NHS blood products. The recommendation is to ensure everyone who may have been affected has the opportunity to be tested and, if necessary, treated for the virus.
Around 400,000 posters and leaflets will be distributed to GP surgeries, hospitals, care homes, pharmacies and other community buildings across Scotland.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood has also sent a letter to clinicians to remind them of the need to offer Hepatitis C tests to certain at-risk groups.
From: Infected blood awareness
●Scottish Government · 2 Sep 2016
A targeted awareness campaign will be carried out to trace anyone who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and has still not been tested for Hepatitis C.
The measure is one of three recommendations made by a working group set up in the wake of the Penrose Inquiry into infected NHS blood products. All the group’s recommendations were today accepted by the Scottish Government.
●Scottish Government · 21 Dec 2015
The single recommendation of the Penrose Inquiry report was that the Scottish Government should offer a hepatitis C test to everyone in Scotland who had a blood transfusion before September 1991 and who has not already been tested. A short life working group has been established by Health Protection Scotland to take this recommendation forward involving key stakeholders such as patient representatives, the Scottish Government and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. It will consider what further action should be taken and oversee the implementation of any additional interventions. Initial scoping work has been carried out with regard to the estimated size of the target group and an options appraisal is in progress on possible future actions.
From: Written question S4W-28863 (Penrose Inquiry recommendation: hepatitis C testing), Maureen Watt, Minister for Public Health
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