Bereaved families who lost loved ones in the contaminated blood scandal say they have seen evidence that proves their relatives were being “used for research” without their knowledge and despite clinicians knowing the risks.

Historic notes in medical records found by campaigners are said to show that some patients being treated for the blood clotting disorder haemophilia in the 1970s and 1980s were given blood plasma treatment which doctors knew might be contaminated and infect them with hepatitis.

Clinicians involved in the treatment have maintained they wanted to study the links between the haemophilia treatment Factor VIII and the risk of infection.

Jason Evans, director of the campaign group Factor 8, believes that instead of stopping treatment, clinicians lobbied to continue trials, even after identifying the association between hepatitis and the treatment.

He has found notes alluding to the research in his own father’s medical records.

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Mr Evans, whose father died in 1993 after being infected with both HIV and hepatitis C during the course of his treatment for haemophilia, said: “It is appalling that hundreds of people with haemophilia across the country were knowingly infected with lethal viruses under the guise of scientific research.

“These secret experiments, conducted without consent, show individuals were treated as mere test subjects, not human beings.

“The fact that this could happen on such a scale, over such a long period of time, is almost incomprehensible.”

Documents – obtained through Freedom of Information requests and medical records provided by families – reveal a timeline of the trials, led by a senior medic who worked for the now defunct Public Health Laboratory Service, say campaigners.

Becka Pagliaro from Waterlooville, near Portsmouth, said she was “shocked” to find notes about the trials in her father’s patient notes.

Her father Neil King was co-infected with both HIV and hepatitis C while receiving treatment for haemophilia. He died in 1996 when he was 38 years old.

“When I got his medical records I saw he was part of this research which I know was something that he would not have agreed to, so that was done covertly,” Ms Pagliaro said.

“I was really shocked – I wondered first of all whether I had received someone else’s medical records because I could not believe what I was seeing.”

Janine Jones’ brother Mark Payton died when he was 41 after being co-infected with both hepatitis C and HIV.

“When I saw the research was on my brother’s records I thought: ‘What’s this?’ And after asking a few questions I didn’t get anywhere,” said the 59-year-old from Warwickshire.

“It was only the last few months that it really came to light – they were being used for research.”

Emma Frame, from South Shields, said that her father had never agreed to be part of studies but found multiple references to them in his medical records.

Ms Frame said: “I have all of his records which is where I came across these studies.

“There is no information other than this doctor’s name, a treatment and then a date. With my dad it was recorded several different times.

“It’s absolutely mind-blowing the information that is out there that has been hidden.”

Jeffrey Frame was co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C and died in 1991 when he was just 39.

Ms Frame said that in the mid 1990s she also discovered that the NHS had kept some of her father’s “samples”, which had not been discussed with the family.

“They still had actual physical samples of my dad who had died years previous,” she said.

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Tens of thousands of people were infected with contaminated blood through infected blood products or blood transfusions, largely between the 1970s and 1980s.

People were infected with hepatitis or HIV, and in some cases with both.

An estimated 3,000 people have died as a result, while those who survived have lived with life-long health implications.

Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors, which represents 1,500 victims and their families, said: “There is now overwhelming evidence that the NHS failed patients on a number of levels in the 70s and 80s and certainly in ways we find shocking and abhorrent.

“We are looking forward to Sir Brian Langstaff’s final Inquiry report in a few weeks’ time, which will lay out the wrongs perpetrated in comprehensive fashion.

“Not only will this reinforce the case for compensating victims and their families, but importantly will shine a light on the lessons to be learned so that mistakes of the past are never repeated again.”

The Infected Blood Inquiry will publish its final report on the scandal on 20 May.

Pubs will be able to extend their opening hours to 1am if England or Scotland make it to the Euro-2024 semi finals this summer.

Venues will be allowed to stay open for an extra two hours on match days if either or both teams reach the last four or the final, the government said.

Most pubs shut by 11pm, but under Section 172 of the Licensing Act 2003 ministers can make an order relaxing licensing hours to mark occasions of “exceptional national significance”.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said that the move will “allow friends, families and communities to come together for longer to watch their nation hopefully bring it home”.

The easement covers venues in England and Wales, with Scotland and Northern Ireland in charge of their own licensing rules.

It comes after a consultation at the end of last year and is hoped to provide a boost to the hospitality industry, which has been hit hard by soaring energy prices and the cost of living crisis.

The semi-finals are currently scheduled to take place on Tuesday 9 July and Wednesday 10 July, with the final taking place on Sunday 14 July.

The head of trade body UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, said the extended hours were “essential to allow venues and fans to take full advantage”.

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, said that by “cutting red tape, doing business will be that much easier”.

She added: “The beer and pub sector is set for a bumper summer of sport, so let’s hope that England and Scotland make it not just through to the semi-finals but meet in the final itself, with pub goers able to cheer the teams on with a beer later into the night thanks to these new measures.”

England fell short of European glory in the COVID-delayed Euro 2020 after losing to Italy in the final.

If the team manages to go one better this summer, it will be the first major trophy won by the country since the World Cup in 1966.

Scotland is the only other home nation to have qualified for the tournament. Wales narrowly missed out on a place after losing to Poland in a penalty-shootout in Cardiff last month.

The UK government has previously pushed back pub closing times for royal weddings, the Queen’s 90th birthday in 2016, the World Cup in 2014 and the last Euro final in 2022.

Pub opening times were also extended during the King’s coronation weekend last year.

The legislation to enact the change will be laid in parliament on Wednesday to ensure there is enough time for it to be debated and passed before the tournament begins.

A Scottish government spokesperson said it was up to local licensing boards whether or not to allow pubs to extend their opening hours.

Experts have hailed a “critical turning point” as renewable power generated a record-breaking 30% of the world’s electricity last year, new data has found.

It raises hopes that the peaking of global greenhouse gas emissions is on the horizon.

But there are concerns many countries are being held up in their switch to clean power because they cannot access the cash needed to fund it.

Last year’s renewable power “milestone” was driven by yet another booming year for wind and especially solar.

China, Brazil and the Netherlands led the way in terms of fast roll-outs, thinktank Ember said in its annual Global Electricity Review.

China alone accounted for 51% of new solar generation and 60% of new wind, even as it continued to build vast amounts of new coal power too.

Christiana Figueres, former United Nations climate chief, called 2023 a “critical turning point”.

She said “outdated” fossil fuels now can’t compete with the “exponential innovations and declining cost curves in renewable energy and storage”.

“All of humanity and the planet upon which we depend will be better off for it,” she added.

In the last two decades, solar and wind have defied expectations and grown far faster than expected, surging from just 0.2% of global power generation in 2000 to 13.4% in 2023.

Dave Jones, Ember’s head of global insights, said the huge growth was due to “matured” policies and technologies and a plummet in costs.

The cost of solar power halved last year despite a surge in demand, thanks to an explosion in manufacturing capacity.

Meanwhile problems that had held up wind power – such as inflationary costs – began to resolve, unlocking more projects.

A ‘genuinely ambitious’ renewables target

At the COP28 climate summit in Dubai last year leaders pledged to triple renewable power capacity by 2030.

The “genuinely ambitious” target shows leaders are backing renewables, which are the “main tools that we have in the box today to deliver the big emissions reductions we need”, rather than riskier technology, such as that to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, Mr Jones said.

Ember suggests the global burning of fossil fuels in the power sector probably peaked in 2023 and will start to fall this year, along with the pollution and emissions they bring.

As the power sector accounts for the largest share of global emissions, that means global emissions could start to fall soon too.

That is good news for curbing climate change, although scientists have repeatedly warned that emissions are not falling fast enough to limit global warming to agreed safer levels.

Mr Jones said the pace of emissions falls “depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues”.

Joab Okanda, a senior adviser for Christian Aid, based in Kenya, said the roll-out would be “so much faster with the right investment” in African nations, which often face much higher borrowing costs than other countries.

Hanan Morsy, deputy executive secretary and chief economist at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, said the continent holds “big potential in renewable energy”.

“Yet a dismally small share of less than 2% of global renewable energy investments are made on the continent. The continent can’t develop further without access to energy.”

He called for financial reforms to bring in affordable and new types of funding.

Financing the clean transition in developing nations, which have typically contributed the least to climate change, will be a key issue at this year’s UN climate summit, COP29 in Azerbaijan.