Contaminated Blood (Support for Infected and Bereaved Persons) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I add my voice in support of the Bill. However, I shall try to be brief. For a start, it is Friday morning, but, more importantly, others are much better versed in the subject matter, and are better able to deploy the case in detail, than I am. We have heard from three speakers already and more are to come. No one who has read the report of the independent public inquiry headed by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer of Sandwell, or who listened to the debate on that report in your Lordships' House last April, can fail to be shocked by the lack of any sense of urgency, and the catalogue of denial and prevarication that it revealed. Equally, no one who has known and worked with the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester, for as long as I have can fail to be impressed by his tenacity and indefatigable persistence in campaigning for justice for those who suffer misfortune through no fault of their own, or who, as in this case, are the victims of state action or the actions of organs of the state, and I pay tribute to him. Over a 45-year career in Parliament—one thinks of thalidomide, vaccine damage and the fight for statutory recognition of dyslexia and autism—even after his distinguished tenure of the office of Minister for the Disabled, the first in the world, when many would have been tempted to rest on their laurels, the noble Lord went on to champion the victims of Gulf War syndrome, to fight for a separate War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Chamber for the Tribunals Service and now, over many years, to campaign for justice for those who have suffered, in many cases resulting in death, through the administration of blood and contaminated blood products by the NHS. As we have seen, he is a campaigner to be reckoned with. When the Government refused to set up an inquiry not once but twice, he simply went ahead and set up one of his own. In that connection, I add my tribute to the work of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, and his inquiry team. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Morris, said in the debate on 23 April, ""no campaigning should ever have been necessary to right the wrongs suffered by the haemophilia community".—[Official Report, 23/4/09; col. 1611.]" The recourse of successive Governments to the device of Crown immunity, requiring sufferers to sign waivers in respect of Hepatitis C in circumstances where they did not know that they might have it but the department knew they were at risk; the resistance to disclosure of documents to the multiparty group; the refusal to hold an inquiry, and then disingenuously relying on the fact that there have been no findings of fault against the British Government; the reliance on discretionary trust funds rather than a system of benefits as of right to provide a measure of compensation; the failure to recognise the claims of widows; and the suggestion that unless a Government are in some way responsible for a misfortune befalling a group of their citizens, they are under no obligation to relieve it, all these things and more can only bring shame on the reputation of this country and its handling of this tragedy, which has been so much less open and generous than that displayed by numerous other countries. It is not my purpose to trawl back through the history of these matters. Nothing can be done about it now, and in any case the Second Reading of this Bill is not the place to do that. I make reference to it merely to underline the context in which it seems to me that the only honourable course that the Government have today, and the only way in which they can go some way to righting the wrongs that have been done to the haemophilia community, is to give their support to the Bill and to bring the recommendations of the Archer inquiry into effect. This is, after all, a fairly modest proposal; in six clauses it provides for testing, treatment and proper compensation. I should be interested to hear how the Minister could make the case that anything less is due. I support the proposals for direct financial relief for those who have been infected and for their carers; that there should be a statutory committee to advise the Government on the management of haemophilia in this country with patient and family representation; that there should be free access to National Health Service benefits; and that there should be government assistance with access to insurance. We now have the Government’s response to the Archer inquiry, which I fear falls some way short of what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Archer, and his committee asked for. However, I hope that the Bill will prompt Ministers to look again at their proposals. I will leave others to speak about the detail, numbers, money and technicalities; it was the ethics and the attitude which particularly struck me. In responding to the inquiry’s recommendation of free access to home nursing and support services, the Government said that the provision of non-residential social care services, such as domiciliary care in England, is a matter for local authorities. This is indisputable as a matter of fact, but does it match up to what the victims of this tragedy deserve, and to the Government’s responsibility? These people were harmed by the NHS; it is the Government’s responsibility to put that right. Of course the Government could, if they chose, make the necessary arrangements to meet the recommendation. After decades of obfuscation, the people who are awaiting that response deserve something better. The Government are not unable, and they should act. What chance does the Bill have of reaching the statute book? It would not be the first time that the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Manchester, has made history with a Bill in the wash-up. I hope that the Government will salvage something of the tattered reputation of successive British Governments in this matter, and snatch some measure of victory from the jaws of defeat by helping the noble Lord to do so again.