IT WAS 25 years ago that Colin Smith from Newport died aged just seven years old after receiving infected blood during hospital treatment.

In what became one of the worst treatment disasters in the history of the NHS, his family have had to fight every step of the way for answers about how their son came to be given infected blood in the first place and then to find out exactly what caused his death.

Their whole experience has been heartbreakingly difficult and distressing.

And they have not been alone, for Colin was one of almost 1,800 people with haemophilia who died after being treated with infected blood in the UK from the 1970s-90s.

Yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron apologised on behalf of the British government to all of the victims of the scandal which was described in the conclusion of a Scottish inquiry into the situation as the stuff of nightmares.

But we agree with Colin's family and with the hundreds of other families involved, that the apology is just too little and far too late.

This apology came after the conclusion of an inquiry in Scotland, which, again inexplicably, is the only part of the country to hold such an investigation.

The inquiry which apportions no blame has also already been dismissed by those involved and their families as a whitewash and who can blame them for that reaction.