Since 1988, successive Governments have voluntarily provided ex-gratia financial and non-financial support for people affected by HIV and/or hepatitis C through historic treatment with National Health Service-supplied blood or blood products in the 1970s and 80s.

The England Infected Blood Support Scheme (EIBSS) was established in 2017. Devolved support schemes were also set up in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. This model of support replaced that historically provided by the Alliance House organisations, which included the Skipton Fund.

EIBSS provides tiered non-discretionary annual payments to eligible infected beneficiaries, based on their type and stage of infection. The majority of beneficiaries opt for these payments to be split into monthly instalments.

We will consider any recommendations when the Infected Blood Inquiry reports, including any around financial support.

The Skipton Fund was responsible for administering a scheme that made payments to people infected with hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service blood or blood products and their families. Therefore this fund was open to applications from anyone infected with hepatitis C as a result of receiving anti-d immunoglobin injections. This eligibility continues under the new England Infected Blood Support Scheme.

The reformed scheme will provide a payment to all those with hepatitis C, even if they have been treated, for the current spending review period. A review of the scheme will take place towards the end of this spending review period.

All those who are currently bereaved partners/spouses and all those who will be bereaved partner/spouses in future will receive a £10,000 lump sum payment and will have continued access to discretionary support. Discretionary support will continue to be available to the bereaved, as well as to infected individuals.

All infected individuals who are registered with Skipton as having hepatitis C stage 1 (nearly 2,500 people) will be eligible for the new stage 1 annual payment.

The number of people registered with the Macfarlane Trust, the Skipton Fund and the Caxton Foundation, from 2011-12 to the most recent full year for which the Department has figures are as follows:

The Skipton Fund figures relate to successful stage 1 applications in respect of infected claimants, but it is not known how many of these people are currently still alive. The Caxton Foundation and Macfarlane Fund figures are the number of living beneficiaries at 31 March in each of the specified years, and includes both infected and uninfected beneficiaries.

The figure of 901 quoted in the Answer of 28 November 2012 to Question 129969 was an estimate provided by the Skipton Fund. Similarly, the eligibility figure of 886 quoted in the Answer of 17 November 2014 to Question 213610 is the Skipton Fund’s current estimate. The difference between the two estimates has arisen because it took some time for the Skipton Fund to update its processes when the stage 2 payment was increased from £25,000 to £50,000 in January 2011. As a result, some new stage 2 recipients received two payments of £25,000, rather than one payment of £50,000. Those individuals were also included in the estimate of 901.

The changes to the scheme were advertised on the Skipton Fund website and everybody who registered a telephone number with the Fund was telephoned on multiple occasions. An email was sent to everybody who registered an email address with the Fund. For anybody still not found using telephone numbers and/or email addresses a letter was sent to the doctor who completed their stage 2 application form.

Relating to individuals already registered with the Skipton Fund, the estimate of Stage 2 hepatitis C virus infectees who contracted the virus following treatment with NHS-supplied blood products and who have not yet accessed ongoing payments from the Skipton Fund is 27. However, our records do not indicate whether these 27 individuals are still living.

It is not possible to provide an estimate relating to individuals not registered with the Skipton Fund.

To date, there have been 787 (out of a possible 886) top-up payments made by the Skipton Fund to individuals in the United Kingdom (or their estates if the individuals have died) who had previously received a Skipton Fund stage two payment of £25,000. There are currently 99 unpaid top-up payments to individuals (or their estates) who had previously received a Skipton Fund stage two payment of £25,000. These 99 remain unpaid because out of date contact details have meant that efforts at contacting these individuals were unsuccessful.

When ongoing Skipton payments for Stage 2 hepatitis C infectees were introduced in 2011, the changes to the scheme were advertised on the Skipton Fund website and everybody who registered a telephone number with the Fund was telephoned on multiple occasions. Three ring-round exercises have been carried out since the announcement but many telephone numbers were found to be defunct or had new owners. Where a person could not be traced via telephone or email, the Skipton Fund wrote to the doctor who completed their stage 2 application form.

The Fund has rejected 193 applications on the grounds that the claimant cleared the virus naturally within six months of infection, four of which have been overturned on appeal. There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria for Skipton Fund stage 1 payments.

The Fund has rejected 193 applications on the grounds that the claimant cleared the virus naturally within six months of infection, four of which have been overturned on appeal. There are no plans to change the eligibility criteria for Skipton Fund stage 1 payments.

According to the Skipton Fund database, as at 30 September 2014, 6,871 people had registered with the Skipton Fund in the United Kingdom since its establishment in 2004. Of those, 6,181 submitted completed application forms for assessment. Of the 6,181 applications received, 5,181 were approved and 701 were declined; the remaining 299 are unresolved applications pending responses to requests for further information.

When MFET Ltd was established in 2010, all 393 living Macfarlane Trust and Eileen Trust primary beneficiaries automatically became MFET Ltd beneficiaries. It is not possible to be rejected by MFET Ltd since registration is automatic for everyone who is successfully registered as a primary beneficiary with the Eileen Trust or Macfarlane Trust. Since MFET Ltd was established, two new applications to be beneficiaries of either the Macfarlane Trust and Eileen Trust have been accepted, and one has been rejected.

The decision that claims to the Skipton Fund in respect of people who died before 29 August 2003 could be registered after 31 March 2011 on a case-by-case basis, where there was a valid reason for the applicant to have missed the registration deadline, was communicated by the Skipton Fund on its website. It was not communicated through the other channels listed in Deposited Paper DEP2011-0543.

The Skipton Fund website still states that it is possible to apply for payments on behalf of the estate of someone who died prior to 29 August 2003, but claimants are asked to contact the Skipton Fund to discuss whether the claimant has a valid reason for missing the original deadline for registering claims of 31 March 2011.

We will arrange for all of the documents relating to the advice received from the group of independent experts which provided advice on the medical trigger for Skipton Fund stage 2 payments in 2003-04, to be placed in the Library by 14 November 2014.

The following table sets out the number of payments and total paid out by Skipton Fund Ltd to the estates of individuals who contracted hepatitis C through treatment with NHS supplied blood or blood products prior to 1991 and who died prior to 29 August 2003.

*Stage 2 payment is made for individuals who received a stage 1 payment and progressed to more severe hepatitis C related disease.

There were 81 such applications before 31 March 2011. However, the deadline initially set of 31 March 2011 was for registrations with the Skipton Fund and not completed applications. No applications have been refused to date for missing the deadline.

The Department received representations from campaign groups and families of deceased individuals in relation to the deadline, and worked with the Skipton Fund in 2011 to agree that any late registrations would be processed, provided the individual registering had good reason for the late registration.

The following table sets out the number of Stage 1 and Stage 2 payments made to the estates of individuals infected with hepatitis C through treatment with National Health Service supplied blood or blood products and who died after 29 August 2003 and before the relevant payment was made.

Notes:

The Stage 2 payment is made for individuals who received a stage 1 payment and progressed to more severe hepatitis C related disease.

The number of Stage 2 payments to estates is greater than the number of Stage 1 payments to estates as some individuals who were alive on receipt of their Stage 1 payment (and so are not included in the stage 1 column in the table above) died before their Stage 2 payment was made.

The Skipton Fund Appeals Panel has considered 412 appeals in respect of decisions made by the Skipton Fund, since the Skipton Fund was established in 2004. 210 appeals were decided in favour of the appellant and 202 were decided in favour of the Skipton Fund.

People who meet the stage 2 Skipton Fund eligibility criteria receive an annual payment for the rest of their lives. The Department has made no assumptions about the average length of time that people might live after meeting the stage 2 eligibility criteria.

The Skipton Fund has received the following funding for its United Kingdom-wide operations, since it started operating in 2004.

In January 2011, the decision was made to make Skipton Fund payment to the estates of people who died prior to the announcement of the scheme in August 2003. Up until 31 March 2013, the last full year for which the Skipton Fund has produced accounts, the Fund has made 456 stage 1 payments and 194 stage 2 payments to estates.

Note.

The Skipton Fund was set up in 2004, to make payments to people infected with hepatitis C as a result of treatment with NHS supplied blood/blood products. It makes payments in two stages: a lump sum of £20,000 for chronic infection, and a further lump sum of £50,000 and an annual payment of £14,191, uprated annually by CPI, for those who go on to develop severe liver disease.