A long-awaited final report from the public inquiry into the infected blood scandal is expected to call for those responsible to face prosecution, the Guardian has learned.
The official inquiry, set up under Theresa May in 2017, will present its findings on Monday in a huge moment for victims and bereaved relatives of what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
The inquiry process, chaired by the former judge Sir Brian Langstaff, has no scope to determine civil or criminal liability. However, it is believed that its report will recommend prosecutions, potentially including current or former NHS figures.
About 3,000 people are believed to have died after more than 30,000 patients were infected with hepatitis C and HIV from the 1970s to the early 1990s, due to contaminated products made from blood which had been donated in the US.
In the wake of the report, the Treasury will announce a compensation package that is understood to total about £10bn. The money to pay for it will come from borrowing.
Government officials say they expect any formal response on Monday to be limited, as the publication of the report will represent what one source called “a day for the victims and families”. After the report is examined, the next steps will be set out in the following days.
The compensation process will be led by Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, who told the Sunday Times it was the “worst scandal of my lifetime”, and that victims and their families were right to feel angry with a generation of politicians, including him, for not acting to address it.
Hunt, who said he had personally promised a constituent he would tackle the scandal in 2014, shortly before the man died from liver cancer connected to hepatitis C, said all politicians should be “deeply ashamed it has taken so long”.
Des Collins, a senior partner at Collins solicitors, who has acted as a solicitor and adviser to about 1,500 victims of the scandal and their families, said he had no idea what was in the closely guarded report, but that recommendations for prosecution were very possible.
“That wouldn’t surprise me at all,” he said. “The interim report criticised the whole system – individual collective and systemic – that level of culpability can only point to corporate manslaughter or criminal negligence.”
However, whether any prosecutions actually happen remains to be seen, and could involve yet another long wait for those affected. Corporate manslaughter in particular is a complex offence to prosecute. Since it was introduced in 2008, there have been only a few dozen cases, with only a handful involving the NHS.
A similar blood scandal in France saw the former prime minister Laurent Fabius and two of his ministers charged with manslaughter. In 1999, Fabius and one minister were acquitted, and the other minister was found guilty but freed. The director of the National Blood Centre received a four-year prison sentence.
Collins said…
2024-05-19 12:33:28
Post from www.theguardian.com