by William James

London: Britain will spend more than 10 billion pounds ($12.70 billion) to compensate thousands of people who were treated with blood contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s, the Sunday Times reports .

The infected blood scandal is widely seen as one of the worst treatment disasters in state-funded history National Health Service,

An estimated 30,000 people were given contaminated blood, about 3,000 of whom are believed to have died. Many more lives have been affected by the disease and some of those infected have never been found.

victim And their families are still pleading for justice, Compensation And answers how this was allowed to happen despite warnings over the risks.

Blood and blood products, some of which were imported from the United States, were given to people who needed blood transfusions or as a treatment for hemophilia.

The Sunday Times said ahead of the publication of an independent investigative report on Monday Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will make an official apology. After this, the government will borrow and announce the compensation package early on Tuesday.

“I think it’s the worst scandal I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt told the newspaper.

“I think families have every right to be incredibly angry that generations of politicians, including me when I was Health Secretary, have not acted fast enough to address this scandal. “

He did not confirm the cost or funding arrangements of the compensation plan.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron apologized for the scandal in 2015 following a report on its impact in Scotland. In 2017, under Prime Minister Theresa May, the government announced a public inquiry.

The inquiry will publish its findings on Monday, which will consider questions including whether the contaminated treatments should have been stopped sooner and whether efforts were made to cover up the problem.

The government has already paid interim compensation of £100,000 to some victims at an estimated cost of around £400 million, following the recommendation of an inquiry in 2022.

($1 = 0.7875 pounds) (by reporting). William James editing by Bernadette Baum)