THE need to include bereaved parents in compensation schemes linked to the contaminated blood scandal has been raised as an urgent issue in the House of Commons by Newport East MP Jessica Morden.

Speaking on the matter in Business Questions yesterday, Ms Morden said an update given last month on compensation for victims of the scandal was welcome.

But, she added, “there’s still no provision in support schemes for bereaved parents like the Smiths, from Newport, who tragically lost their son Colin, aged just seven, after he was infected with blood from an Arkansas prison.

“So can we have an opportunity to discuss compensation schemes, and to impress upon Cabinet Office ministers the need to finally include and crucially, acknowledge bereaved parents?”

Replying, Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg said Ms Morden raised “a point of huge importance”, adding that government ministers would be meeting with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood to provide an update on what is happening around the ongoing inquiry into the scandal and to give reassurance that the matter is being taken “deeply seriously”.

“This is something that the government has got an inquiry on, that is continuing, and the inquiry has not lost pace because of the pandemic, and it has been holding remote hearings, and will come to a conclusion,” he said.

READ MORE:

Of the contaminated blood scandal, he said: “It was a terrible failing, with appalling consequences for individuals and their families.”

Colin Smith’s parents - Colin and Janet Smith - are among many across the UK, who have not received a penny in compensation, or any other payments, despite losing a child to illnesses caused by them having received in the 1970s or 1980s, blood or blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C.

Much of the blood and blood products sold to hospitals in the UK back then came from prisons in the state of Arkansas in the USA, where high numbers of prisoners were infected with HIV and hepatitis.

The children of victims are similarly not part of any payment schemes, which focus on victims and bereaved partners.

Colin Smith died aged seven years in 1990, having received a clotting agent –Factor VIII – that contained contaminated blood products, to treat haemophilia.

His parents, like many across the UK, have been fighting for justice for more three decades

Last month, it was announced that cash support for victims of the scandal will be levelled out across the UK. Until now, victims in Wales had received £14,000 less than those in England.

But this will not help bereaved parents and many others who still do not receive a penny in support, for parents, and children who have lost a parent, are not included in any payments connected to the scandal.

“Hundreds of families lost children, some lost two children, and hundreds of children lost parents – but we are not included by either the UK or devolved governments,” Mr Smith told the Argus last month.