A major report into the infected blood scandal has been delayed until next year.
Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
An independent inquiry was due to publish its final report this autumn but the document will now be published in March 2024, the Inquiry team said.
Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the Infected Blood Inquiry said: “When we completed the last hearings, the question I was most asked was when we would publish. I said it would be late autumn.
“I have been obliged to recognise that the sheer volume and scale of the material that needs to be explained, the weight of criticisms made of individuals and organisations, and the way we are legally required to deal with them, mean that this is simply not realistic.
“I wanted, and I know that inquiry participants wanted, it to be earlier, but I must now say that we expect to publish in March. It would be misleading not to tell you that now, when we are clear that we cannot make this autumn, however hard we try.”
In 2017, then-prime minister Theresa May ordered the public inquiry into what she called an “appalling tragedy which should simply never have happened”.
An estimated 2,900 people died between 1970 and 2019 after being infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the UK.
Thousands of adults and approximately 380 children received infected blood products or transfusions during treatment by the NHS, the inquiry has heard.
Victims are dying at a rate of one in every four days so another six months-plus will be too late for many and given this week's announcement of a compensation scheme for wrongfully convicted postmasters, ahead of the final report into that scandal, it seems doubly unfair that infected blood victims are still being made to wait— Lawyer Des Collins
Most of those involved had the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia and were given injections of the US product Factor VIII.
Commenting on the delay, Des Collins, senior partner of Collins Solicitors, the firm which represents some 1,500 individuals and their families impacted by the infected blood scandal, said: “This is another devastating blow for our clients, although the delay is understandable for the reasons Sir Brian has outlined.
“We, of course, respect Sir Brian’s wishes to follow due process and produce a thorough and considered report, however, today’s news does beg the glaring question of whether the Government will continue to stick to its line of compensation after delivery of the final report.
“Victims are dying at a rate of one in every four days so another six months-plus will be too late for many and given this week’s announcement of a compensation scheme for wrongfully convicted postmasters, ahead of the final report into that scandal, it seems doubly unfair that infected blood victims are still being made to wait.
“We call upon the Government to implement a proper compensation scheme for infected blood victims as soon as possible, as recommended by Sir Brian in April this year.
“If the Government fails to do so, we fully expect to be instructed by our clients to restore the group action against the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and ask that the question of compensation be referred back to the court.”
