Contaminated canned food

London: €14 billion for victims of blood scandal

The British government has announced billions in compensation for victims of a scandal involving contaminated blood products. A total of 11.8 billion pounds (14.1 billion euros) is to be paid out, as Finance Minister Rachel Reeves said in Parliament in London.

In the biggest treatment scandal of the British health service NHS, around 30,000 people received contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scandal was to be covered up
More than 3,000 victims died after being infected with HIV or hepatitis C during blood transfusions or treatments. A report denounced the failure of politicians, authorities and doctors: The scandal was to be covered up at the time.

The outgoing Conservative government had apologized for the scandal and announced compensation, said Reeves from the Social Democratic Labour Party. However, it had not included any money for this in its budget.

Compensation for alleged postal scandal too
The victims of another scandal are also to be compensated. Reeves said that 1.8 billion pounds had been earmarked for those affected. This concerns incorrect invoicing at the Post Office service provider.

Hundreds of post office managers had been wrongly accused and in many cases convicted of enriching themselves. However, errors in Fujitsu's IT system "Horizon" were responsible.