Infected Blood Inquiry: Who is criticised in new report?

Published

12 months ago

May 20, 2024

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An inquiry into the infected blood scandal has pointed the finger at several people and organisations after more than 30,000 patients were “knowingly” infected with HIV or Hepatitis C.

Inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff said the “disaster was not an accident” and there was a “catalogue of failures” and a “pervasive” cover-up by the NHS and successive governments.

More than 30,000 Britons were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

About 3,000 people died as a result, while many more still live under the shadow of health problems, debilitating treatments and stigma.

Follow live: Updates on infected blood report

Speaking after the report was published on Monday following the seven-year inquiry, Sir Brian said: “The damage caused was compounded by the reaction of successive governments, the NHS and the medical profession.

“Successive governments refused to admit responsibility to save face and expense.

“Today’s report also found that the response to the infections made things worse, including repeated failures by governments and the NHS to acknowledge the victims should not have been infected in the first place.”

In the report, he named specific people and institutions in his criticism.

They included:

Lord Clarke

Kenneth Clarke, now a lord, was heavily criticised by Sir Brian.

He was a health minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government from 1982 to 1985, then health secretary from 1988 to 1990.

Lord Clarke was accused of being “somewhat blasé” when he gave evidence to the inquiry about the collection of blood from prisoners as late as 1983.

His manner was described as “argumentative”, “unfairly dismissive” and “disparaging” towards those who have suffered, with Sir Brian saying he played “some part” in that suffering.

The report said it was “regrettable that he could not moderate his natural combative style in expressing views”.

Sky News has approached Lord Clarke for comment.

The Thatcher government

Margaret Thatcher, as well as subsequent governments and health secretaries, continually said infections were “inadvertent” and patients were given “the best treatment available on the then current medical advice”.

The inquiry report concluded that was not true and said the factual basis for the claim was unclear.

“In short, adopting the line amounted to blindness,” the report said.

“Adopting it without realising it needed to have a proper evidential base, and they did not know what it was, was unacceptable.

“The line, which was wrong from the very outset, then became entrenched for around 20 years: a dogma became a mantra.

“It was enshrined. It was never questioned.”

Sir Brian added that the Thatcher government “did not respond appropriately, urgently and proactively” to the risks of Hepatitis C and HIV transmissions through blood.

He said the government knew there was a much higher incidence of Hepatitis in prisoners, yet “no action” was taken to stop blood donations from them, which “increased the risk of transmission”.

The failure lied “principally at the door” of the health departments in Westminster and Scotland, he said.

He said the Thatcher government signed up to recommendations in 1983 from the Council of Europe to inform clinicians and patients about the risks of treatment – yet failed to follow those recommendations.

Sir Brian described the failure to provide any guidance to doctors about the risk of transmission of AIDS as “inexcusable”.

On compensation, he also said the Thatcher government “plainly formed the view, at an early stage, that nothing had been done wrong, and that no financial assistance would be provided to people with bleeding disorders who had been infected with HIV”.

He added: “It did so without any proper investigation either into what had caused the infections or into the appalling plight of those infected.”

Treloar School

Haemophiliac children were sent to the Hampshire school with an on-site NHS clinic so they could live as near a normal childhood as possible.

Instead, 75 boys died of AIDs and Hepatitis – and 58 were infected but survived – as they were included in secret trials to test a blood product called Factor 8, which was made with blood farmed from prisoners, sex workers and drug addicts in America.

The report said there “is no doubt” the risks of virus transmission were well known to doctors at Treloar School, yet doctors “played down the risks”.

Some pupils and parents were “never informed” by the school the boys had tested positive for HIV, which Sir Brian said “was unconscionable”.

Treloar School was a “microcosm” of much of “what went wrong in the way haemophilia clinicians treated their patients across the UK,” he added.

The school said in a statement: “We are devastated that some of our former pupils were so tragically affected and hope that the findings provide some solace for them and their families.”

It added that its management was “absolutely committed to exploring” calls for a public memorial to those affected, and added: “We’ll now be taking the time to reflect on the report’s wider recommendations.”

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

The hospital was the main site in Liverpool for children with bleeding disorders from the late 1970s onwards.

Doctors used Factor 8 concentrate containing contaminated blood to treat them, even after other haemophilia centres stopped using them on children, Sir Brian found.

Alder Hey’s director from the mid-1970s, Dr John Martin, “did not regard the risk of Hepatitis as a reason to alter any treatment regime”, the report added.

“He exposed them to wholly unnecessary risks,” it said.

Sky News has approached Alder Hey for comment.

Professor Arthur Bloom

Professor Bloom, who died in 1992, was one of the country’s leading haemophiliac specialists during the period and treated some of those who were affected.

Sir Brian Langstaff said he “must bear some of the responsibility for the UK’s slowness in responding to the risks of AIDs to people with haemophilia”.

Prof Bloom said at the time he was unaware of any proof linking infections to the blood products and said there was no need to change patients’ treatment, Sir Brian said.

He added: “Disastrously the Department of Health and Social Security was over-influenced by his advice, in particular his advice to continue importing commercial factor concentrates.”

The NHS

Sir Brian said the response of the NHS and the government showed there was not a major plot to cover up failures “in an orchestrated conspiracy to mislead”.

“But in a way that was more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications,” he said.

“To save face and to save expense, there has been a hiding of much of the truth.”

He also found patients were knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection, with transfusions frequently given when not clinically needed.

The report also said there was no contact tracing exercise carried out when Hepatitis C screenings were introduced.

Sir Brian also said the NHS and governments repeatedly failed to acknowledge people should not have been infected, despite the scandal being known about.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to victims and said it was a “day of shame for the British state”.

He said the findings of the inquiry should “shake our nation to its core” and promised to pay “comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected.”

The NHS said in a statement on its website: “Since September 1991, all blood donated in the UK is screened using very rigorous safety standards and testing to protect both donors and patients.

“Since screening was introduced, the risk of getting an infection from a blood transfusion or blood products is very low.”

UK

Post-Brexit EU reset negotiations ‘going to the wire’, says minister

Published

6 hours ago

May 19, 2025

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Post-Brexit EU reset negotiations 'going to the wire', says minister

Negotiations to reset the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the EU are going “to the wire”, a Cabinet Office minister has said.

“There is no final deal as yet. We are in the very final hours,” the UK’s lead negotiator Nick Thomas-Symonds told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

On the possibility of a youth mobility scheme with the EU, he insisted “nothing is agreed until everything is”.

“We would be open to a smart, controlled youth mobility scheme,” he said. “But I should set out, we will not return to freedom of movement.”

Politics latest: PM outlines ‘benefits’ for UK from closer EU ties

The government is set to host EU leaders in London on Monday.

Put to the minister that the government could not guarantee there will be a deal by tomorrow afternoon, Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “Nobody can guarantee anything when you have two parties in a negotiation.”

But the minister said he remained “confident” a deal could be reached “that makes our borders more secure, is good for jobs and growth, and brings people’s household bills down”.

“That is what is in our national interest and that’s what we will continue to do over these final hours,” he said.

“We have certainly been taking what I have called a ruthlessly pragmatic approach.”

On agricultural products, food and drink, Mr Thomas-Symonds said supermarkets were crying out for a deal because the status quo “isn’t working”, with “lorries stuck for 16 hours and food rotting” and producers and farmers unable to export goods because of the amount of “red tape”.

Asked how much people could expect to save on shopping as a result of the deal the government was hoping to negotiate, the minister was unable to give a figure.

On the issue of fishing, asked if a deal would mean allowing French boats into British waters, the minister said the Brexit deal which reduced EU fishing in UK waters by a quarter over five years comes to an end next year.

He said the objectives now included “an overall deal in the interest of our fishers, easier access to markets to sell our fish and looking after our oceans”.

Turning to borders, the minister was asked if people would be able to move through queues at airports faster.

Again, he could not give a definitive answer, but said it was “certainly something we have been pushing with the EU… we want British people who are going on holiday to be able to go and enjoy their holiday, and not be stuck in queues”.

PM opens door to EU youth mobility scheme

A deal granting the UK access to a major EU defence fund could be on the table, according to reports – and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has appeared to signal a youth mobility deal could be possible, telling The Times that while freedom of movement is a “red line”, youth mobility does not come under this.

The European Commission has proposed opening negotiations with the UK on an agreement to facilitate youth mobility between the EU and the UK. The scheme would allow both UK and EU citizens aged between 18 and 30 years old to stay for up to four years in a country of their choosing.

Earlier this month, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Phillips a youth mobility scheme was not the approach the government wanted to take to bring net migration down.

When this was put to him, Mr Thomas-Symonds insisted any deal on a youth mobility scheme with Europe will have to be “smart” and “controlled” and will be “consistent” with the government’s immigration policy.

Asked what the government had got in return for a youth mobility scheme – now there had been a change in approach – the minister said: “It is about an overall balanced package that works for Britain. The government is 100% behind the objective of getting net migration down.”

Phillips said more than a million young people came to the country between 2004 and 2015. “If there isn’t a cap – that’s what we are talking about,” he said.

The minister insisted such a scheme would be “controlled” – but refused to say whether there would be a cap.

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‘It’s going to be a bad deal’

Shadow cabinet office minister Alex Burghart told Phillips an uncapped youth mobility scheme with the EU would lead to “much higher immigration”, adding: “It sounds very much as though it’s going to be a bad deal.”

Asked if the Conservatives would scrap any EU deal, he said: “It depends what the deal is, Trevor. And we still, even at this late stage, we don’t know.

“The government can’t tell us whether everyone will be able to come. They can’t tell us how old the young person is. They can’t tell us what benefits they would get.

“So I think when people hear about a youth mobility scheme, they think about an 18-year-old coming over working at a bar. But actually we may well be looking at a scheme which allows 30-year-olds to come over and have access to the NHS on day one, to claim benefits on day one, to bring their extended families.”

He added: “So there are obviously very considerable disadvantages to the UK if this deal is done in the wrong way.”

Jose Manuel Barroso, former EU Commission president, told Phillips it “makes sense” for a stronger relationship to exist between the European Union and the UK, adding: “We are stronger together.”

He said he understood fishing and youth mobility are the key sticking points for a UK-EU deal.

“Frankly, what is at stake… is much more important than those specific issues,” he said.

UK

Gary Lineker to leave BBC next week and will no longer host World Cup coverage in 2026

Published

9 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Gary Lineker to leave BBC next week and will no longer host World Cup coverage in 2026

Gary Lineker is to leave the BBC after this season’s final Match Of The Day and will no longer present its coverage of the World Cup, Sky News understands.

It comes after he “apologised unreservedly” for a social media repost featuring a rat – used in propaganda by Nazi Germany to dehumanise Jewish people – and said he would “never knowingly share anything antisemitic”.

Lineker’s last appearance on the BBC will be on 25 May, the final day of the season, with confirmation expected on Monday.

The former England star announced in November he would step down from Match Of The Day this year, but was set to return to front the World Cup in 2026, as well as FA Cup coverage.

Lineker, 64, said he was unaware the post he shared was antisemitic and it went against “everything I believe in”.

In response to the presenter resharing the post, the Campaign Against Antisemitism said his “continued association with the BBC is untenable”.

And when asked about Lineker last week, BBC director general Tim Davie said: “When someone makes a mistake, it costs the BBC reputationally.”

The presenter was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over comments he made criticising the then Conservative government’s asylum policy.

Lineker has hosted Match Of The Day since 1999 and has been the BBC’s highest-paid on-air talent for seven consecutive years. He also has a successful podcast production company.

Mark Chapman, Kelly Cates and Gabby Logan will take over the highlights show from next season.

When the trio take over as hosts, it will be the first time the role has been shared by three people.

Sky News has contacted the BBC for comment.

UK

Teen arrested after Kayden Moy dies following ‘disturbance’ at beach in Ayrshire

Published

9 hours ago

May 18, 2025

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Teen arrested after Kayden Moy dies following 'disturbance' at beach in Ayrshire

A teenager has been arrested after a 16-year-old boy died following reports of a “disturbance” at a beach in Ayrshire.

Kayden Moy was found seriously injured by officers at Irvine Beach at around 6.45pm on Saturday.

The teenager, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was taken to hospital but died in the early hours.

Police Scotland said on Sunday evening that a 17-year-old boy had been arrested and enquires were continuing.

Officers believe the incident may have been filmed and have urged witnesses and anyone with information to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Campbell Jackson said: “An extensive investigation is under way to establish the full circumstances surrounding this death.

“Our officers are supporting the boy’s family at this very difficult and heartbreaking time.

“From our investigation so far, we know there were a number of people on the beach around the time of the disturbance.

“We believe several of them were filming at the time and may have footage of what happened.

“I would urge people to review the footage they have and contact police if they think the footage captured could be of significance to our investigation.”

This can be submitted anonymously, the force said.

Superintendent Jim McMillan added: “We understand this death will be of great concern for the local community, but please be assured that we are doing everything we can to identify those involved.

“There will be additional patrols in the area as we carry out our enquiries and anyone with any concerns can approach these officers.”