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

I am grateful to the Minister. She may know that I have close links with the ex-service community; in particular, that I have been honorary parliamentary adviser to the Royal British Legion now for 21 years. In that case, Ministers—and I was myself Minister for war pensions in the 1970s—have all through the years made it clear to general practitioners that in view of the special position of the ex-service community for contracting with the state to lay down their lives in its service, there should be an element of priority. Thus there is one precedent for saying that where the state feels a special responsibility for the illness or disabilities of patients, priority is defensible.