Payments bid in blood scandal defeated

HUNDREDS of people contaminated with infected blood will not receive higher compensation payments to match those in the Irish Republic after a Commons motion was defeated.

The Government faced calls from a cross party group of MPs to make the payments as recommended in the Lord Archer report. His inquiry was privately funded after successive governments refused to hold a public investigation into the issue.

Almost 5,000 people who suffered from haemophilia and other bleeding disorders contracted hepatitis C and HIV after being given contaminated blood products.

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Around half of those infected with hepatitis C and almost three-quarters of those infected with both HIV and hepatitis C have since died.

Those infected have been campaigning for payments to be assessed in the same way as in the Irish Republic, where compensation has been higher.

However, Public Health Minister Anne Milton yesterday rejected calls to match those payments but said she would look again at the support given to people infected with hepatitis C.

Former Labour Minister Geoffrey Robinson, who opened the debate, condemned the Government's commitment to hold a review as "useless".

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Colne Valley Tory MP Jason McCartney said it still had represented a "big victory".

"We have had a full debate in the House of Commons for the first time and the Minister has promised to come back with commitments before Christmas. This is a big comfort to us."

Mr McCartney has been campaigning for higher compensation payments on behalf of a group of his constituents.

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