* Compensation to be set out on Tuesday could cost taxpayers more than £10bn
* Over 30,000 infected with HIV and hepatitis C due to contaminated blood
Rishi Sunak will apologise to infected-blood victims today, as a devastating report blames successive governments and the NHS for the scandal.
The Prime Minister will issue a formal apology on behalf of the Government for the handling of a scandal which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and continues to wreck countless others.
Tomorrow ministers will set out plans for a massive compensation scheme, which could cost taxpayers more than £10 billion.
Whitehall sources expect NHS chief Amanda Pritchard to issue her own apology for the worst treatment disgrace in the history of the health service.
The moves come as former High Court judge Sir Brian Langstaff today publishes the long-awaited findings of a public inquiry which was launched in 2018, with an estimated 710 more victims having died since the hearings began.
Both the Department of Health and the NHS are expected to face heavy criticism for continuing to allow the use of imported blood products for years after the first warnings that they could be contaminated with viruses such as HIV and hepatitis C.
They will also be savaged for their evasive response to campaigners seeking the truth, in what victims believe to have been a concerted cover-up lasting decades.
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C at the hands of the NHS after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. The tainted products were imported cheaply from the US where blood was being collected from paid donors such as prisoners, the homeless and drug addicts.
Most of those infected were people who received treatment for blood disorders such as haemophilia and those who had blood transfusions.
Kate Burt, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, said: ‘The contaminated blood scandal has been a stain on our nation for too long.
‘For the sake of the thousands of lives lost to this disaster, the Government must accept all the Infected Blood Inquiry’s recommendations and begin work immediately to rebuild trust in our public services. Only a commitment to deliver radical reform and to treat those it serves with compassion and respect will begin to end this shameful episode in our country’s history.’
