No higher compensation for contaminated blood victims

HUNDREDS of people in Britain contaminated with infected blood will not receive higher compensation payments to match those in Ireland, the British government announced yesterday.

In April, the High Court ordered ministers to review a decision not to implement fully the recommendations of an independent inquiry carried out into the scandal.

Jeffrey Archer’s report called for an overhaul of pay-outs to those who contracted HIV and hepatitis through contaminated blood transfusions in the 1970s and 1980s, recommending payments in Britain matched those here in Ireland.