Read a summary of this week’s inquiry evidence

Written by Jessica Bomford, September 16, 2022

This week the Infected Blood Inquiry has heard evidence mainly about missing documents and government’s response to the issue during the period 2004 to 2007.

The first witness was Lord Nigel Crisp, NHS Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary for Health from 2000 to 2006, who was followed by Anita James, a lawyer in the Department of Health between 1981 and 1996 who then returned as Head of Litigation between 1999 and 2005.

Other witnesses were Zubeda Seedat, a civil servant in the Blood Policy team between 2002 and 2008 and Caroline Flint, pictured, a health minister between 2005 and 2007.

In addition to this, there was evidence from Susan Douglas, the former medical correspondent for the Mail on Sunday, who wrote a front-page story in May 1983 exposing the potential transmission of AIDS through blood products in the UK.

Professor David Armstrong, Professor of Medicine and Sociology at King’s College London and an expert from the public health and administration group, gave evidence about record keeping. There was also a short presentation on medical records by junior counsel Sarah Fraser Butlin.

Click here for a summary of this week’s evidence.

Transcripts of inquiry evidence are available here. A weekly summary of previous hearings can be found here.

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