Compensations Proposals Reconsidered following Consultation Process

Written by Jeff Courtney, August 14, 2024

This morning the interim chair of IBCA, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority put out a statement and has published his further recommendations to government to address concerns and issues with the current compensation proposals.

The chair Sir Robert Francis, ran a consultation and engagement exercise in June in which he met with The Haemophilia Society and other groups and invited written submissions. We raised a series of concerns most of which have been addressed in his latest recommendations.

While he believes the government proposals are broadly in line with the inquiry’s recommendations he proposes that:

  • Greater clarity is required on how the tariffs were calculated and how the scheme will be administered
  • Payments from the Infected Blood Support Schemes should continue, should be kept separate from compensation, and should only be deducted from compensation for future care costs and future financial losses.
  • To provide financial security people will be able to choose between lump sum compensation awards or periodic payments.
  • The severity bands will be reconsidered to take into account additional clinical factors and psychiatric injury
  • There should be an increase in the social impact award for affected people
  • The autonomy award should be increased for people who were used as subjects of research without knowledge or consent, at Treloar School or at other haemophilia centres
  • There are recommendation to adjust or clarify how care awards and financial loss awards are calculated. A supplementary route will remain for people who should get higher awards in these heads of loss
  • Estates will receive additional compensation for legal support and be offered a mediation service
  • Funding will be provided for legal support and a legal advice service will be offered to people without legal representatives

It will take more time for us to consider the recommendation in detail but we are expecting the government to publish their response on Friday. We are meeting, alongside other groups, with the Cabinet Office tomorrow to discuss the recommendations and the government proposals.