, ,

Meeting about compensation scheme announced

Written by Jessica Bomford, June 14, 2024

We want to let you know that the Haemophilia Society, along with other campaign groups, has been invited to meet representatives of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) on 18 June.

Sir Robert Francis, interim Chair of IBCA is holding a series of meetings next week alongside David Foley, interim Chief Executive of IBCA and Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery, who led the government’s expert group on compensation.

Meeting details

Our meeting will take place online over two hours and will be held jointly with Haemophilia Scotland, Haemophilia NI, Haemophilia Wales, Friends and Families of Haemophilia NI and the Scottish Infected Blood Forum. One representative from each group is permitted at the meeting, plus a legal adviser who can only observe. Our Chair, Clive Smith, will attend on our behalf. We understand there will be another three meetings next week involving about 20 other campaign groups from the bleeding disorder and blood transfusion communities.

As part of the information sent to us about the meeting, we received a document which gave a more detailed breakdown of how the illustrative compensation figures have been calculated. You can read this document here. We are not in a position to advise you about these figures, which are illustrative, as we have had no involvement in how they were worked out.

We are not permitted to give a detailed account of the meeting and it we are told it will not be recorded. A summary of the meeting will be published on IBCA’s website.

Sir Robert has said he would like to discuss the following issues:

  • Future of the Current Support Schemes 
  • Severity Bands 
  • Care and Financial Loss Awards 
  • Evidence Requirements 
  • Equalities Impact 

We have also requested that concern over how lump sums are to be distributed through estates be included for discussion.

Feedback from our members

It is very important to us that Sir Robert and his team at IBCA understand the levels of concern and anxiety which have been expressed to us in the weeks since the government’s compensation scheme was announced. We have received a 300% increase in phone calls in the last month, the vast majority of which were on the issue of compensation.

The main areas of concern have been the proposed ending of the infected blood support schemes, the way in which lump sums will be distributed through estates and the way infections have been categorised. We have recorded your views and will be putting them to IBCA in a more detailed written submission. As part of this submission we will be sending out a survey to our members via email next week to ensure we have accurately captured your views on the key issues.

You can also email IBCA directly at [email protected].

Other meetings

We have heard from a number of members that they have been contacted by IBCA to take part in discussions about using a future service, how they might expect to make an application and what support they might need to do that. We have not been notified about these meetings, but we understand that participants have been chosen at random and their conversations will be recorded anonymously. There will not be an opportunity to ask questions about the compensation scheme.

Timetable

We appreciate that many of you have views that you urgently want IBCA to know about. We will do our best to reflect the many points that have been made to us in our written submission and in the meeting with IBCA next week.

We do not know yet how long this period of consultation will last, but we assume it will not go beyond June. Sir Robert has said he wants to present the findings of the consultation to ministers as soon as possible following the general election on July 4.

Please look out for our survey next week. If you have additional points to make after that, email [email protected]