I would like to associate myself with the comments of the Member for Kingston upon Hull North

that it’s important to keep the victims and their families at the heart of this debate. And we should all take a moment to remember and pay our respects to those who have lost their fight and are no longer with us.

It was only due to the persistence of activists that the scale of the disaster and the coverup began to be revealed in 2017. And I want to pay tribute to their determination not to give up despite some of them being in poor health.

And particularly to thank Sean Cavens and Bruce Norval who have provided me with so much information and support over the years.

Their effort meant there was strong cross-party support for public inquiry before the emergency debate on the 11th of July, 2017. In that debate, I explained how as a young surgeon, the revelations of the early to mid eighties shocked me to my core. That in transfusing a patient, I might have exposed them, while trying to save them from trauma or surgery, to HIV or hepatitis.

It led me to totally change my surgical approach,

and use every single technique available that could reduce blood loss and minimize the need for transfusion. But that was 40 years ago. My entire surgical career has passed while the victims have still been seeking justice.

Drew Hendry MP: I’m very grateful to my honourable friend for giving way. She has been working tirelessly on this matter and is right to refer to Bruce Norval and his work too. It, Bruce Norval has pointed out that up to a hundred people a year are dying who’ve been affected by this scandal and have not not been able to access the compensation. It is time to get on with us, isn’t it?

I absolutely agree with my honourable friend, but I want to pay tribute to Sir Brian Langstaff and his team for their meticulous forensic and dogged examination of all the evidence, but also their sensitivity to the witnesses. They have helped reveal the truth about 60 years of disastrous policy decisions and individual decisions, including failure to ensure blood transfusion services were self-sufficient or to switch to safer treatments more quickly.

And in particular, the inquiry exposed the systematic attempts to cover up the scandal. I’m not sure whether the minister attended any of the hearings, but if he hasn’t, he should watch the video recordings and maybe he would get the merest hint of the suffering of those infected by contaminated blood and their families.

I attended a couple of sessions in London and Edinburgh, and it was harrowing even as an observer, let alone for those who had to recount their experiences and relive their pain. Their bravery and determination was humbling. The inquiry staff did an incredible job in providing support to the victims who came to bear witness. While Sir Brian ensured that they and their representatives were involved in steering the inquiry to its conclusion with the final report due in the autumn. While that report will seek to ensure the lessons from this disaster are learned, one of the key aims of the inquiry is to achieve just compensation for the victims and their families.

Thank you to the honourable member for giving way. She’s making an excellent contribution. I spoke this morning with my constituent Robert Ross, a young life blighted and ruined by this and I, the thing that struck me so hard was you feel it’s so desperately unfair that this happens to somebody. And in recent times we’ve seen a mixture of emotions in this place about the way we do things. But one of the undying greats of British politics, Scottish politics is a sense of fairness. So surely let us hope that a fair and equitable solution, we found that that can be seen to be fair for these people.

I would totally agree with my honourable friend and, and it’s quite clear the support right across this chamber.

Money can’t redress the loss of lives and loved ones, nor the reduction in quality of life caused by illness, stigma, or caring responsibilities. But it can at least ease the hardship and financial worries which many families are facing, particularly at the moment. The Leader of the House as the then Paymaster General was the first minister to accept that the responsibility for this disaster lay with the UK government and that financial compensation was inevitable.

She commissioned Sir Robert Francis to develop a compensation framework, which he delivered last March. The government refused to publish it, saying they would only publish it along with their formal response. But three months later when it was about to be leaked, it was finally published, but with a mere covering letter and no real commitments.

Indeed, the government have still not responded. It was only after Sir Brian published the first interim report last July and directed the government to pay interim compensation payments of £100,000 that we finally saw action. These payments were, however, limited to survival victims and their partners who were registered with support schemes. But provided nothing to those who’d lost parents or children, or spent many years as family carers.

This issue is particularly important for HIV affected families as three quarters of the victims have already died of AIDS, including many of their partners. Appallingly, they were often not told their HIV status and unwittingly passed the virus onto their loved ones.

With 40 years of denial, coverup and obstruction, there’s little trust in the government and ongoing delays are exacerbating that distrust. Over 560 victims have died since 2017, including 67 partners. So if the government wants to rebuild trust, they must now respond to Sir Brian’s report from April, which includes all the recommendations regarding compensation and they need to respond with urgency and action.

I hope the minister has come with more than the blather we’ve had to listen to in this chamber for over a year and is ready to make it clear that the government accepts all of Sir Brian’s recommendations. On behalf of all victims, whether infected or affected, we need to know when the Chair of the Independent Compensation Body will be appointed. And a commitment that victims and the representatives will be included in its development.

Victims need to be reassured that the system will not be adversarial, so the process doesn’t re-traumatize those who’ve already suffered so much. We need to hear from the minister how bereaved parents and children will be registered now, so they can receive interim payments quickly and be included in the final compensation process.

I would love to think that this could be the last debate needed to achieve justice for victims of contaminated blood. But sadly, I fear that won’t be the case. With an average of two victims a week losing their lives since that debate in 2017, the government must surely accept time is of the essence for these people.

Enough is enough.