Contaminated blood supply claim investigated in 2003, Scottish Ministers told

Scottish Cabinet ministers were told the UK’s Health Department was investigating a claim of knowingly supplying contaminated blood, newly released files from 2003 show.

Official documents show Scotland’s then Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm telling the cabinet of the Scottish Executive at a meeting in October 2003 there were two current issues relating to the contaminated blood scandal, recommendations for compensations levels and the claim the contaminated blood and knowingly been supplied.

Thousands of people across the UK in the 1970s and 1980s were given blood products infected with hepatitis viruses and HIV.

The first UK-wide inquiry into the public health disaster heard earlier this year it is estimated more than 25,000 could have been affected.

The UK Government imported blood clotting factor from the US, where much of the plasma used came from donors such as prison inmates, who sold infected blood, which was then given to haemophiliacs and other patients in the UK.

The papers also record Mr Chisholm telling the Cabinet he had only had money for the cheapest of the options drawn up to compensate those given contaminated blood in Scotland.

That paper states: “Mr Chisholm said that there were two current issues in relation to Hepatitis-C infection through contaminated blood products.

“The first was the calls from Lord Ross, as chair of the Expert Group, in relation to the level of compensation for those affected and the range of people who should receive it.

“The second was a claim that the Government had knowingly supplied contaminated blood after procedures had been introduced in 1991 to test for the virus used in blood transfusions.

“This would be a very serious matter, if true, and the Health Department was investigating the basis of the claim.”

Earlier that year, in a briefing paper to the Scottish Cabinet, Mr Chisholm said he could only release up to £10 million from the health budget towards a compensation scheme for those in Scotland given contaminated blood.

An expert group headed by Lord Ross recommended to a parliamentary committee that all those infected were given compensation payments, including those who have cleared the virus and payments to dependants who those who had become infected and died.

However, Mr Chisholm said the scheme should be targeted at those still alive with long-term symptoms of signs of liver inflammation.

In three options for compensating this group, ranging from the £50,000-£25,00 for all with long-term symptoms or damage and an another £50,000-£25,000 for those who develop cirrhosis.

He told the Cabinet the cheapest version was the only “financially affordable” option.

Scotland was the first part of the UK to hold an inquiry into the infected blood scandal but this did not take place until 2009 and did not report until 2015.

It estimated around 3,000 people had been infected in Scotland.

Earlier this year, the Scottish Government announced increased compensation payments for those who contracted chronic hepatitis through contaminated blood, including to the partners of those who died.