Infected Blood Inquiry: compensation

The Infected Blood Public Inquiry recommended that the government should set up a compensation scheme for people infected and affected by contaminated blood, blood products and tissue.

The government accepted this recommendation and made regulations in August 2024 to establish the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme. At the time of writing, the scheme is not open for applications. Instead, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA, the body administering the scheme) is contacting people who may be eligible and inviting them to make a claim, in stages. Since October 2025, individuals who believe they are eligible for compensation can register an intent to claim via the IBCA website.

It is not clear how many people will be eligible for compensation from the scheme. The government has estimated that between 8,500 and 16,500 infected people could claim compensation. According to the National Audit Office, the IBCA has estimated that around 51,000 affected people could make a claim but there is considerable uncertainty about these estimates.

The Autumn Budget 2024 included £11.8 billion of funding for infected blood compensation. In April 2026, the National Audit Office said the scheme was expected to pay £12.8 billion in compensation overall.

Background to the public inquiry

Between the 1970s and early 1990s, thousands of UK patients contracted HIV, hepatitis viruses, or both, after receiving contaminated blood, blood products and tissue as part of medical treatments and procedures, such as blood transfusions.

A public inquiry was ordered by the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, in July 2017. The Infected Blood Inquiry examined the circumstances that led to individuals being given contaminated blood and blood products in the UK. The inquiry also scrutinised the responses of the government, health services and professionals. It was chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, a retired High Court judge. Oral evidence sessions initially finished in July 2023.

The final report of the inquiry was published on 20 May 2024. The government formally responded to the inquiry’s report a year later.

The inquiry’s primary recommendation was that the government should immediately establish a compensation scheme for those “infected and affected”. Affected people are “those who have suffered the impacts of infected blood through their relationship with an infected person”. The government accepted all 12 of the report’s recommendations either in full or in principle. No recommendations were rejected.

This research briefing on infected blood compensation examines the design and implementation of the compensation scheme. A separate Commons Library research briefing examines recommendations made by the inquiry that are focused on improving safety and patient care: Infected Blood Inquiry: recommendations for recognition, healthcare and patient safety.

Establishing a framework for compensation

During the public inquiry, three reports were published that set out potential plans for providing compensation.

The first, published in June 2022, was undertaken by Sir Robert Francis KC and was commissioned by the government, separately from the public inquiry. Sir Robert outlined a possible compensation model and recommended that interim payments, of no less than £100,000, should be made ahead of the establishment of a compensation scheme.

The public inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, then issued two interim reports on compensation. The first interim report, published in July 2022, agreed with Sir Robert’s proposal for the government to make interim payments, without delay, to those who were infected or their bereaved partners. They would be eligible for the payment if they registered (or were already registered) with the existing infected blood support schemes before any future compensation scheme was established.

The government accepted the recommendations and interim payments of £100,000 were made to over 4,000 people by October 2022.

A second interim report on compensation was published in April 2023. The report’s principal recommendation was that a “compensation scheme should be set up now”, and that eligibility for compensation should be extended to cover bereaved parents, children or siblings of infected people. The report emphasised that compensation scheme could be established immediately because the second interim report fully covered the inquiry’s “recommendations on financial redress”.

The Conservative government responded to some individual recommendations made by the three reports (such as the interim compensation proposals). Standalone government responses to these reports have not been published.

Pressure on the government to introduce compensation

By summer 2023, some stakeholders, including affected families, expressed frustration about the absence of any formal government response to the three compensation reports and the lack of progress on compensation. Parliamentarians and stakeholders took several steps to encourage the government to provide compensation.

For example, additional public inquiry hearings were held in July 2023 with the Prime Minister, Chancellor and former Paymaster General. One aim of the hearings was to get “clarity and action from the Government” on compensation. In addition, a Labour amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill was agreed. The amendment required the government to establish the compensation scheme, by regulations, “within three months of the passing” of the act. The Victims and Prisoners Bill received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024, meaning that regulations establishing the compensation scheme had to be in place by 24 August 2024.

Setting up the Infected Blood Compensation Authority

The Paymaster General made a statement to the House on compensation arrangements on 21 May 2024, the day after the publication of the final inquiry report. In the statement, the government:

• accepted Sir Brian’s recommended five categories of pay awards (injury, social impact, autonomy, care, and financial loss)
• appointed Sir Robert Francis as the interim chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA, the arm’s-length body responsible for administering the compensation scheme)
• announced that Sir Robert would be seeking views from the infected blood community about the proposed compensation scheme
• confirmed additional interim compensation payments of £210,000 to living infected beneficiaries

Compensation scheme regulations

The government had to make regulations that formally established the compensation scheme and gave the IBCA powers to pay compensation. The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2024 came into force on 23 August 2024. These regulations enable compensation payments to be made via the ‘core route’, namely to infected persons, both living and deceased.

A second set of regulations was made in March 2025. The regulations enable the scheme to make, among other things, payments to those affected by infected blood, such as partners, parents, children and siblings of an eligible infected person.

Accessing compensation and additional inquiry report

Stakeholders have repeatedly criticised the IBCA for processing claims at “far too slow a pace”. The Infected Blood Inquiry reported in March 2025 that it had received a significant amount of correspondence from stakeholders, with much of it focused on the “way compensation is being implemented and the time it is taking”.

In response, the inquiry chair held further hearings on compensation and published an additional report on 9 July 2025. The report made a total of 26 recommendations, identifying ways in which the compensation scheme, and the legislation underpinning the scheme, could be improved.

The report made 11 recommendations for the IBCA; on 21 July 2025, the IBCA said it accepted all of these recommendations. The government also published a response to the report on 21 July. It accepted seven of the inquiry’s recommendations about the design of the scheme and said that it would consult on a further five recommendations. A third set of regulations were laid on 30 October 2025 to introduce changes to the compensation scheme in response to the inquiry’s additional report. These include some changes to eligibility and payments made under the scheme.

A fourth set of regulations to amend the scheme is planned, following the government’s response to the rest of the inquiry’s recommendations. These will make further changes to the payments made under the scheme, including increasing the compensation for people who were the subject of unethical research practices during treatment for bleeding disorders.

On 31 March 2026, Sir Brian Langstaff wrote to the Paymaster General to notify him that inquiry had fulfilled its terms of reference and would officially end.