Good morning. On Monday, after Sir Brian Langstaff’s devastating report on the infected blood scandal was published, Rishi Sunak promised “comprehensive compensation”, and said: “Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.”
Yesterday, the government set out what that commitment would mean in practice, starting with an additional £210,000 interim payment for victims, with final payments expected before the end of the year that could rise to £2.7m for a single victim.
Estimates for what that will cost in total run to about £10bn. But even if the compensation is an essential step towards vindication, the very act of putting a figure on it also emphasises how impossible it is to capture the extent of such suffering. A figure for loss of earnings is one thing – but how do you work out a fair sum for a disease that will eventually kill you, or the death of a child, or years of being misled by the state?
Dr Sonia Macleod, a research fellow at Oxford University’s Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, has been thinking about these questions for a long time: she co-wrote a major study comparing personal injury compensation schemes, and advised Sir Robert Francis, the author of the compensation framework report that formed the basis for the government’s proposals. For today’s newsletter, I asked her how she thinks about translating demands for justice into financial awards – and what else is necessary to give victims a sense of closure. Here are the headlines.
Five big stories
Health | The number of people under 40 being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by soaring obesity levels and cheap junk food. The Guardian previously revealed that ministers had been warned they were putting children and young people at risk of life-changing medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, because they had shelved policies to tackle obesity and junk food until 2025.
Air transport | A British passenger has died and seven people have been critically injured after a flight from London to Singapore was hit by turbulence. Passengers on the Singapore Airlines plane told of a “dramatic drop” that launched those not wearing a seatbelt into the cabin ceiling. Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old grandfather, is believed to have suffered a heart attack during the incident.
Israel-Gaza war | Individual members of Israel’s security forces are tipping off far-right activists and settlers about the location of aid trucks delivering vital supplies to Gaza, enabling the groups to block the convoys, according to multiple sources. The claim of collusion is supported by messages from online chat groups reviewed by the Guardian.
UK news | A former Royal Marine commando who was charged with spying for the Hong Kong intelligence service has died in circumstances the police have described as “unexplained”. Matthew Trickett, 37, was found by a member of the public in a park near where he lived in Maidenhead, Berkshire.
UK politics | The Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay has revealed that he had both his hands and feet amputated last year due to sepsis. Mackinlay, who plans to run again in his Kent constituency at the next election, credited his wife with saving his life after she insisted paramedics take him to hospital when he became violently ill last September.
In depth: ‘People are still dying, and time is not on their side – so it’s important to be as speedy as possible’
When I asked Sonia Macleod if there is anything like an agreed starting point for fair compensation figures, she directed me to the Judicial College’s guidelines on damages in personal injury cases.
You can see the version used in Northern Ireland here. The numbers are fascinating, and suggest how arbitrary or even cold some of this can inevitably seem: up to £850,000 for very severe brain damage, £750,000 for the loss of both arms, £50,000 for an injury to the thumb requiring the amputation of the tip but not its total loss, £4,500 for the loss of a back tooth. “Courts provide what would often be termed ‘full compensation’,” Macleod said, “to restore you to the position you would have been in if not for the injury. But that’s almost impossible – it’s a legal fiction.”
The approach in cases like the contaminated blood scandal, where there is a general recognition of the state’s responsibility and a powerful political incentive to be seen as doing the right thing, is quite different. “There’s a question about legal entitlement. But there’s also a moral question – and the indication here is that there will be a more generous approach than the law would necessarily oblige.”
Yesterday the government published tables of illustrative awards that revealed how significant the payments will be in the most severe cases: as much as £2.7m for someone living with HIV and hepatitis C, and £110,000 for the partner of someone who died. Even so, it is just as impossible to recreate the life that might have been.
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What is the government doing for the victims of the infected blood scandal?
The Cabinet Office minister John Glen set out the government’s response to Langstaff’s report in parliament yesterday. He announced an additional £210,000 payment within 90 days for living claimants who had been infected, on top of the £100,000 they have already received, with full payments to be made by the end of the year. Glen said the £210,000 figure was arrived at as the highest possible sum that would be applicable across all cases, and could therefore paid without delay.
He also announced that the payments will be exempt from tax, and that Francis would run the authority overseeing the scheme. Finally, he said that the views of the infected blood community would be sought before the plan was finalised.
Those are important features, Macleod said. “People are still dying, and time is not on their side – so it’s really important to be as speedy as possible. A tariff system makes payments simpler and quicker, rather than individualising the scheme to each person. And all of this has to be done in conjunction with the people who have been affected. In the past, that consultation has not been done in the way it should have been.”
She also welcomed the news that Francis will oversee the scheme – which was also applauded by victims and family members in the House of Commons gallery. “Where the body that caused the harm is running it, that is never going to fly. It lacks independence and credibility. You have to have decisions taken away from the agency that caused the harm.”
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What will they be compensated for?
There will be payments to those indirectly affected, primarily family members of those infected, as well as the victims themselves. The government has largely accepted the categories of compensation that were set out by Francis: injury, social impact, autonomy, past and future care needs, and past and future financial losses. Some of these are clearly more tangible than others, from a concrete financial loss at one end of the spectrum to the loss of the ability to form long-term relationships at the other.
Those losses might be harder to put a figure on, but they are no less profound, as those who have lost loved ones to Aids or hepatitis because of infected blood would attest. “If the criteria are relatively straightforward, you can judge eligibility quickly,” Macleod said. “That shouldn’t be an issue here, since most people are already receiving payments.
“The next step is quantifying the payment levels, and how you judge that – so, for example, decisions by panels will take longer than those by individuals. And if you’re going for a tariff, rather than an individually tailored award, you have to be generous enough to cover the most severely affected. But there will be injustices within that: some people who have had massive knock-on impacts that aren’t quantified, some people who you might say that you don’t think the losses are quite as severe. It’s a horrible job.”
One measure of how difficult some of these assessments can be: a parent whose child has died is eligible for £30,000 less than someone who lost their partner. That might make sense in terms of financial impact, but it is easy to see that it could also appear to minimise such a grievous loss.
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Are there other ways to make sure that victims feel the scheme is just?
The numbers are bound to attract headlines – but for the victims, as Francis wrote in his report, they matter as more than a financial benefit: they are “a visible sanction for what they see as gross misfeasance and violation of their rights on the part of the state”.
That sense of justice depends on much more than money. As well as ensuring the scheme is efficiently run and trustworthy, Macleod said, “there is a developing body of literature saying that it’s important to look at the wider redress – the apology, the assurance that it won’t happen again, and ensuring that it’s a restorative process rather than adversarial – which can be very traumatising”.
There is great symbolic weight, too, attached to ensuring that the victims are properly remembered. Macleod points to the example of the thalidomide memorial in Cardiff, which was unveiled after a seven-year battle by campaigners and commemorates “the children who did not survive to enjoy a full and rewarding life”, and “the parents and loved ones who gave so much”. On the other hand, a statue unveiled by the company that invented the drug was viewed as insulting, because it was not accompanied by any admission of wrongdoing.
The Langstaff report said that “in order to provide the public recognition and tangible reminder that is so obviously required, there should be a suitable national memorial”, as well as a specific memorial for the children who were infected at Treloar’s college.
“You have to look at redress in the widest sense,” Macleod said. “Compensation is what the courts or the state can offer – but things like an apology or a monument are really important in terms of the healing process. They bring a sense of vindication.”
Langstaff also urged funding for a biannual event to bring the infected and affected together. And that is a measure of another form of closure, which reflects on the strength of the community that persisted in their demand for justice, as well as focusing on the obligations of the state.
The money will be of huge importance. But maybe the most memorable image from the last couple of days was one that offered a different kind of vindication: the moment that followed the victims and their families giving Langstaff a standing ovation at Central Hall Westminster (above). “You’re actually applauding the wrong people,” he said. “The words come from you and your stories … look to your right, look to your left, look in front, those of you who can turn, look behind. Those are the people who have written this report.” The audience rose, and applauded again.
What else we’ve been reading
Rachel Keenan spent much of her childhood on the beach, in campsites and paddling in the sea in Inverbervie. She may be one of the last generations to enjoy these experiences as the shoreline of the small town on the north-east coast of Scotland erodes at an alarming pace. Nimo
Drop everything and read Rebecca Nicholson on Netflix’s UK knock-off of Selling Sunset, Buying London: that rare bird, a zero-star review. (I didn’t even realise we gave them out.) “It is boring and infuriating, and neither are the garnishes I like on my trash,” she writes. Sorry, Becca, but I’m obviously going to have to watch it. Archie
Meet Baby Olivia is an animated video, created by an anti-abortion group, of a foetus in a disembodied womb in an effort to, allegedly, push anti-abortion views on to young people. This contentious video will be required watching in two US states as part of the sex-ed curriculum – Carter Sherman reports on the latest front of post-Roe abortion battles. Nimo
Why has the government introduced new offences of causing death or serious injury by dangerous cycling when they account for about 0.1% of road deaths a year? Peter Walker argues that it is a familiar moral panic, and “nothing more than displacement activity”. Archie
After the conviction of her old headteacher of 12 counts of sexual activity with a child, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett reflects on the tragedy of the cases and stresses the importance of investigating how such sexual abuse was enabled. Nimo
Sport
Football | Gareth Southgate has made a string of huge decisions in naming England’s 33-player training squad for Euro 2024, with Marcus Rashford and Jordan Henderson (above) the most eye-catching omissions. Adam Wharton and Curtis Jones have been surprisingly selected over Henderson in midfield, Ivan Toney has been included in attack and Ben Chilwell has been left out despite major doubts over Luke Shaw’s fitness at left-back.
Football | Chelsea are prepared to rival Brighton for the appointment of Ipswich’s Kieran McKenna after reaching an agreement to part company with Mauricio Pochettino by mutual consent on Tuesday. Pochettino, who led the club to sixth in the league, had been frustrated in his attempts to be given more power, including over transfers.
Cycling | The 16th stage of the Giro d’Italia was delayed by extreme weather conditions on Tuesday, with freezing rain and snow causing chaos before the start in Livigno. The stage was initially set to climb to almost 2,500 metres – the highest point of this year’s race – but deteriorating conditions in the mountains prompted riders to vote on skipping the Umbrail Pass, which features a treacherous descent.
The front pages
“Alarm over big increase in under-40s with diabetes” is the Guardian’s splash this morning – also on the front, “British passenger dies in severe plane turbulence”. “Brit dies in jet plunge at 38,000ft” says the Metro, while the Daily Express has “British grandad killed in flight horror plunge”. “Nightmare at 37,000ft” says the Daily Mail while the Daily Mirror calls it “Terror in the sky”. “Brit charged with spying for China found dead in Maidenhead park” – that’s the i while the Daily Telegraph leads with “I’ve lost my hands and feet to sepsis, says MP” and the Times has “Make fewer arrests to help jails, police told”. The top story in the Financial Times is “Adani suspected of fraud by selling low-grade coal in India as cleaner fuel”.
Today in Focus
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Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
“Friendly violence”, “achy feet”, “chafing” and “sweat” are the words people use to describe the experience of moshing. Rachel Ní Bhraonáin, a dancer and aerialist, became fascinated with the culture, politics and psychology of the moshpit after witnessing her boyfriend’s commitment to moshing (which left him with injuries after one particularly energetic gig). The results of her research is a dance-theatre piece that has its UK premiere at the Norfolk & Norwich festival this week. Mosh investigates the archetypes and the crowd behaviour of a moshpit illuminating why it’s so gratifying to some people to put themselves in what could be seen as a violent or generally risky situations. “It is a dance form. And I think that didn’t occur to me until I started looking into it. It’s like a folk dance,” says Ní Bhraonáin.
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