Andy Burnham suggested there could be a case for corporate manslaughter over the tainted blood scandal as he challenged Conservative leadership candidates to commit to interim compensation payments to infected survivors.
The former health secretary, now mayor of Greater Manchester, wrote to each of the five remaining candidates on Friday to match their evidence to the tainted blood inquiry.
The public inquiry is looking into what has been described as the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the NHS, with around 3,000 people believed to have died and thousands more infected. Hemophiliacs were infected after being given factor VIII blood products that used HIV- and hepatitis C-infected blood imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s. Other people have been infected as a result of exposure to infected blood through a blood transfusion or after giving birth.
The inquiry heard evidence that the government knew about the problem long before it admitted it and that the scandal could have been avoided.
In letters to Conservative Party leadership candidates, Burnham said: “In preparation for my session, I carefully reviewed a considerable amount of documentation. I also recalled my many conversations with victims over the years. All this has led me to one clear conclusion: that the Department of Health and the bodies it is responsible for have been grossly negligent about the safety of people in the hemophilia community for five decades to the point where there might even be a case for requesting CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to consider charges of corporate manslaughter.
Burnham, who was also chief secretary to the Treasury, gave evidence after Sir Robert Francis QC told the inquiry earlier this week about his recommendation in a government-commissioned report that infected survivors should receive a minimum interim compensation of £ 100,000.
Francis said waiting until the end of the investigation to pay compensation risks people dying in the meantime before they can deal with their cases.
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Referring to Francis’ evidence, Burham wrote in the letters: “There are concerns that the leadership election in which you are participating is delaying a decision on this vital issue. This could have been avoided if all other candidates were prepared to commit now to making an interim payment of the kind recommended by Sir Robert within days of taking office as Prime Minister.
“Such a commitment by the five would allow the civil service to begin work now on the necessary arrangements and thereby minimize further delay, hardship and anxiety for those affected.” Are you ready to make that promise?’
In damning evidence for the central London inquiry, Burnham said civil servants had provided “inaccurate lines” to ministers over the scandal “largely driven by fear of financial exposure”. He was applauded by the audience when he said the government had “completely failed” the victims of the tainted blood scandal for five decades and expressed his hope the inquiry would put that right.
He said that knowing what he knows now, he would never have sent a 2009 letter to an infected person that said there was “no evidence that people were knowingly infected with contaminated blood and blood products.”
Before Burnham began his evidence, the inquiry’s chairman, Sir Brian Langstaff, said that in light of Francis’ evidence he was considering using his powers to make a recommendation before the end of the inquiry that interim compensation be paid. Langstaff gave key players, including the government, until 5pm on July 25 to submit submissions on the matter.
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