Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed deep regret for the failures in handling the infected blood scandal, calling it a decades-long moral failure. Responding to the public inquiry’s report, which revealed that 30,000 people were infected through contaminated blood treatments, Sunak described the scandal as a “day of shame for the British state.” The inquiry found that authorities covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks. The Infected Blood Inquiry accused doctors, the government, and the NHS of allowing patients to contract HIV and hepatitis. Approximately 3,000 people have died, with more deaths expected.

Sunak told the House of Commons he was “truly sorry” for the failures, stating, “Today’s report shows a decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life. I want to make a wholehearted and unequivocal apology.” He condemned the denial of responsibility as “our eternal shame” and promised to pay “whatever it costs” in compensation to victims, with details to follow on Tuesday.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also apologized, calling it one of the “gravest injustices” the country had seen and noting that victims had “suffered unspeakably.” The infected blood scandal is regarded as the biggest treatment disaster in NHS history.

The inquiry examined over 50 years of decision-making before, during, and after thousands of people were infected through contaminated blood transfusions and blood products from the 1970s onwards. The five-year inquiry found that safety had not been prioritized, with known risks of transmitting viral infections since the NHS’s inception in 1948.

Despite this, people were exposed to “unacceptable risks,” including:

  • Continued importing of blood products from abroad, including from high-risk donors in the US, where prisoners and drug addicts were paid to give blood, despite a pledge to become self-sufficient.
  • Failure of the licensing regime to recognize the dangers of such products, which should not have been licensed for use.
  • Continued sourcing of blood donations from high-risk populations in the UK, such as prisoners, until 1986.
  • Delay until the end of 1985 to heat-treat blood products to eliminate HIV, despite known risks since 1982.
  • Government ignoring warnings from Dr. Spence Galbraith in 1983 that all imported US blood products should be withdrawn from NHS use until the HIV risk was clarified.
  • Lack of testing from the 1970s to reduce hepatitis risk, with the UK being one of the last developed nations to start screening for hepatitis C when an accurate test was available.
  • Four-year delay in tracing those infected with hepatitis C following the introduction of screening, leaving many undiagnosed.

Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of the inquiry, called the scale of the scandal “horrifying” and criticized the authorities for their slow response. He highlighted a lack of openness, accountability, and instances of “downright deception,” including the destruction of documents. He stated that hiding the truth involved not only deliberate concealment but also telling half-truths or withholding information that patients had the right to know, including the risks of treatment, available alternatives, and, at times, the fact they had been infected.

Sir Brian emphasized that the scandal destroyed “lives, dreams, friendships, families, and finances,” with the number of deaths continuing to rise. “This disaster was not an accident,” he said. “The infections happened because those in authority—doctors, the blood services, and successive governments—did not put patient safety first.”

About 380 children with bleeding disorders contracted HIV after being given blood products for their condition, many dying in childhood or young adulthood after enduring severe pain and fear. Some treatments were administered without informed consent from the patients or their parents, which the report deemed unconscionable.

Sir Brian also criticized delays in initiating a public inquiry, which was announced by then-Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017 under political pressure. He noted that the delay hindered the investigation, as key individuals had died or become too frail to testify. An “institutional defensiveness” by the NHS, government, civil service, and doctors compounded the harms. Sir Brian specifically pointed to Cardiff Haemophilia Centre director Prof Arthur Bloom, whose views “overly influenced” the government’s response to the emergence of AIDS, downplaying the threat to people with bleeding disorders.