The Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS has voiced frustration at the lack of conclusion on infected blood compensation scheme, first commissioned over five years ago when the MP was a Minister at the Department for Health.
During an Urgent Question by the Member of Parliament for Kingston, Steve Brine questioned the Paymaster General, Michael Ellis MP, on behalf of a number of constituents who had contacted him in recent months.
The MP said; "Due to the sort of ignorance about HIV and a lack of understanding of how it was transmitted, many people assumed that people with haemophilia were infected with AIDS and it forced so many people to hide their haemophilia for fear of stigma and the discrimination.
Can I ask the Minister, is the work underway in identifying people who would eligible for the interim compensation payment scheme? Is that the ongoing work that's going on or is the Government still considering if there should be such because I think that's an important distinction that my constituents affected by this would like to know?"
The Minister responded; "The whole matter is still being considered, there were nineteen recommendations, my officials are working hard across Whitehall on the matter. It's unfair and inaccurate to characterise this as having made no progress over the course of these years.
Of course, it made no progress or hardly any progress for many, many years after the infected blood scandal began, but since the Right Honourable Lady from Maidenhead began the inquiry, considerable progress has been made and is being made."
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