In a significant blow to the UK government, MPs have voted on an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which calls for a compensation scheme to be established for the victims of the NHS infected blood scandal. The legislation was passed by a narrow margin of 246 votes to 242, with 22 Conservative MPs voting in favour of the amendment proposed by Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson. This is the first whipped vote the government has lost in the House of Commons since the 2019 general election.
The amendment requires the government to establish a “body to administer the compensation scheme” for infected blood victims when the bill becomes law. While the government has already agreed to make interim payments of £100,000 to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners, it has insisted on waiting for the infected blood inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, to conclude before setting up a full scheme.
However, earlier this year, Sir Brian called for a full compensation scheme to be established immediately and recommended that it be extended to include orphaned children and parents who lost children. In response to this delay, Dame Diana Johnson proposed the amendment and argued that the government did not need to wait for Sir Brian’s final conclusions before taking action, citing the example of the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal who were awarded compensation before the inquiry’s final report was published.
Despite the government’s offer of amendments to the bill in the House of Lords, the prime minister suffered a significant defeat that could affect his future political plans. The amended bill to establish the infected blood compensation scheme has now cleared the House of Commons and will be sent to the House of Lords for approval. This issue has affected thousands of people who were given contaminated blood products during the 1970s and 1980s, leading to the deaths of over 3,000 people after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood
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