Legalize / United Kingdom / Statutory-Instrument

The Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025

Type Statutory-Instrument

Publication 2025-03-27

State In force

Department King's Printer of Acts of Parliament

Source legislation.gov.uk

Reform history JSON API PDF

Made: 27th March 2025

Coming into force: 31st March 2025

In accordance with section 79(10) of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, a draft of this instrument was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.

PART 1 — General

Citation, commencement and extent

1

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 31st March 2025.

(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Interpretation

2

(1) In these Regulations—

“the Act” means the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024;

“acceptance” means an acceptance of an offer in accordance with regulation 75, and “accepting” and “accepted” are to be construed accordingly;

“affected core application” means an application for an affected core payment;

“affected core payment” has the meaning given in regulation 47(1);

“affected supplemental payment” has the meaning given in regulation 56(1);

“affected SSP recipient” means a person in respect of whom support scheme payments are being made because they are a bereaved partner of a person who was infected with HIV or Hepatitis C (or both);

“application” means an application for an IBCS payment;

“assignable care award” has the meaning given in regulation 14(5);

“assigned care award payment” means the amount of any assignable care award that is assigned to a notified care award assignee pursuant to an election in accordance with regulation 75(9);

“average” means the arithmetic mean;

“care”, except in regulation 34, includes—domestic support or household maintenance;personal care;nursing care;end of life care;

“care award assignment notice” has the meaning given in regulation 14(4)(a);

“co-infection” means infection with two or more of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV;

“consumer price index” means the general index of consumer prices (for all items) published by the Statistics Board, a body corporate established by section 1 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007[^f00002];

“Crown Dependency” means—the Bailiwick of Guernsey;the Bailiwick of Jersey;the Isle of Man;

“deductible payment” has the meaning given in regulation 6;

“diagnosed” means—diagnosed by a registered medical practitioner, ordiagnosed by a medical practitioner outside the United Kingdom, but only where that diagnosis is subsequently confirmed by a registered medical practitioner;

“eligible affected person” has the meaning given in regulation 4;

“eligible IBSS recipient” means—an IBSS-registered infected person, oran IBSS-registered affected person;

“eligible infected person” has the meaning given in regulation 3;

“eligible person” means an eligible affected person or an eligible infected person;

“first year of infection”, in relation to an eligible infected person (“P”), means—where P has a single infection—the year in which P contracted the infection, orif it is not possible to establish the year in which the infection was contracted, the earliest year in which P could have contracted the infection;where P has a co-infection—the earliest year in which P contracted one or more infections, orif it is not possible to establish the year in which the first infection was contracted, the earliest year in which P could have contracted one or more infections;

“first year of P’s compensation period”, in relation to an eligible infected person (“P”), means the later of—1952,P’s first year of infection, orwhere P is an eligible infected person by virtue of regulation 3(7)(a), the year in which P began living with the person to whom regulation 3(2) or (6) applies;

“first year of Q’s compensation period”, in relation to an eligible affected person (“Q”), means the later of—1952, orthe year immediately following—where regulation 53(4) or 57(3) applies to Q, the year in which P2 died (for the meaning of “P2”, see regulation 53(11) or, as the case may be, 57(5));in any other case, the year in which P died (for the meaning of “P”, see regulation 53(1) or as the case may be, 57(1));

“further infected core payment” has the meaning given in regulation 41(1);

“further infected payment” means a further infected core payment or a further infected supplemental payment;

“further infected supplemental payment” has the meaning given in regulation 44(1);

“healthy life expectancy”, in relation to an eligible infected person, means the number of years that person could expect to live if they had no serious health conditions, calculated—for the purposes of the calculation of an affected financial loss award in accordance with regulation 53, as at 1st January immediately following the date of death of the eligible infected person in relation to whom a person is an eligible affected personin all other cases, as at the date of the infected core application, and the person’s healthy life expectancy is always that number of years irrespective of any provision of these Regulations which deems the date of the infected core application to be a date later than the date it was actually made;and by reference to the typical life expectancies in the actuarial tables for use in personal injury and fatal accident cases published by the Government Actuary’s Department in 2020 and updated in 2022[^f00003];

“HIV” means human immunodeficiency virus;

“IBCA support scheme payment” has the meaning given in regulation 59(1);

“the IBCS” means the infected blood compensation scheme described in regulation 9(1);

an “IBCS payment” means—an infected core payment;an infected supplemental payment;a further infected core payment;a further infected supplemental payment;an affected core payment;an affected supplemental payment;

“IBSS payment category” means a payment category of a description specified in column 1 of the table in regulation 62 in relation to an infected blood support scheme;

“IBSS-registered affected person” means a person who is registered under an infected blood support scheme as the bereaved partner of a person infected with HIV or Hepatitis C (or both);

“IBSS-registered infected person” means a person who is registered under an infected blood support scheme by virtue of being infected with HIV or Hepatitis C (or both);

“infected blood support scheme” has the meaning given in section 56(3) of the Act;

“infected core application” means an application for an infected core payment;

“infected core payment” has the meaning given in regulation 13(1);

“infected SSP recipient” means a person in respect of whom support scheme payments are being made because they have an infection of HIV or Hepatitis C (or both);

“infected supplemental award” means—an unethical research practices award,a severe health condition award, oran exceptional loss award;

“infected supplemental payment” has the meaning given in regulation 23(1);

“infection”, in relation to an eligible infected person, means an infection of the person of such description and which was contracted in such a manner as to cause them to be an eligible infected person, and “infected” is to be construed accordingly;

“loss of services” includes costs incurred in the provision of—childcare or other care, anddomestic support;

“notified care award assignee” has the meaning given in regulation 14(4)(b);

an “offer” means an offer to make an IBCS payment in accordance with regulation 74;

“parental responsibility”, in relation to a person in—England and Wales, has the same meaning as in section 3 of the Children Act 1989[^f00004];Scotland, is to be construed as a reference to “parental responsibilities” within the meaning of section 1(3) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995[^f00005];Northern Ireland, has the same meaning as in Article 6 of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995[^f00006];a Crown Dependency, means any corresponding responsibility which applies to persons in its territory;

“the Part 5 period” has the meaning given for the purposes of Part 5 (see regulation 59(5)(c));

“periodic payment” has the meaning given in regulation 77(1)(a);

“periodic payment election” means an election made in accordance with regulation 75(4);

“personal representatives” has the meaning given in section 56(9) of the Act, and a reference to personal representatives is a reference to them acting in their capacity as such;

“relevant person” has the meaning given in regulation 5;

“relevant date”, in relation to—an eligible infected person, means—where the person was deceased on the date of the application, the date of the person’s death;otherwise, the date of the application;an eligible affected person (“Q”), means—where either (but not both) of Q or the eligible infected person in respect of whom Q is an eligible affected person (“P”) is deceased on the date of Q’s affected core application, the date that person died;where both of Q and P are deceased on the date of Q’s affected core application, the date of death of the first of them to die;otherwise, the date of the affected core application;

“single infection” means infection with only one of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C or HIV;

“support scheme payment” means—a payment made, or to be made, in relation to an eligible IBSS recipient (“E”) by an infected blood support scheme, of—an amount which corresponds to the IBSS payment category that applied to E or, as the case may be, E’s partner on 31st March 2025 or would have applied to E or E’s partner, if they had been registered with the infected blood support scheme on that date, andan amount for the purpose of helping E meet expenses for heating which have been or are likely to be incurred in cold weather, oran IBCA support scheme payment.

(2) In these Regulations—

(a) “additional financial loss (core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 20

(b) “additional financial loss (further core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 43(5);

(d) “basic financial loss award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 19;

(e) “care (core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 21;

(f) “care (excess actual costs) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 39;

(g) “care (excess deemed costs) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 40;

(h) “care (further core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 43(6);

(i) “care (further severe health condition) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 46(2);

(j) “care (severe health condition) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 31;

(k) “exceptional loss award” means an award determined in accordance with Section 4 of Chapter 2 of Part 3;

(l) “financial loss (further reduced earnings) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 46(4);

(m) “financial loss (further severe health condition) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 46(3);

(n) “financial loss (PAYE earnings) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 37;

(o) “financial loss (self-employment earnings) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 38;

(p) “financial loss (reduced earnings) award” means—

(i) a financial loss (PAYE earnings) award, or

(ii) a financial loss (self-employment earnings) award;

(q) “financial loss (severe health condition) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 32;

(r) “injury (core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 16;

(s) “severe health condition award” means an award determined in accordance with Section 3 of Chapter 2 of Part 3;

(t) “social impact (core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 17;

(u) “support scheme top-up (core) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 22;

(v) “support scheme top-up (supplemental) award” means an award determined in accordance with regulation 24(5);

(w) “unethical research practices award” means an award determined in accordance with Section 2 of Chapter 2 of Part 3;

(x) the “future amount” of an award is the amount of that award determined in accordance with regulation 7(3);

(y) the “past amount” of an award is the amount of that award determined in accordance with regulation 7(2).

(3) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a period which is defined as beginning or ending with a month or year includes that month or year;

(b) a reference to an IBCS payment having been made includes a reference to a periodic payment determined by reference to an IBCS payment having been made;

(i) it is decided or withdrawn, and

(ii) all routes of review or appeal of a decision on the application have been exhausted (including where any periods for requesting a review or bringing an appeal have expired).

(4) In these Regulations, in relation to the severity of—

(a) a Hepatitis C infection, “level 1” means an infection described in the first row of the table in Schedule 1;

(b) a Hepatitis B infection, a Hepatitis C infection, or a co-infection of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C—

(i) “level 2” means an infection described in the second row of the table in Schedule 1;

(ii) “level 3” means an infection described in the third row of the table in Schedule 1;

(iii) “level 4” means an infection described in the fourth row of the table in Schedule 1;

(5) For the purpose of determining the amount of an award in relation to an eligible person (“R”)—

(a) except in regulations 14(1)(b), 21(6) and (7), 42(1), 45(1), 48(1)(b) and 75(4)(b), paragraph 4(2)(a) of Schedule 2 and Part 5—

(i) a reference to a year, except in the term “tax year”, is a reference to the 12-month period from January to December;

(ii) where R was infected for only part of a year, they are to be treated as if they were infected for the whole of that year;

(iii) where R dies partway through a year, they are to be treated as if they had died at the end of that year;

(b) where R has an infection of Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C (or both)—

(i) where the severity level of the infection varied over the course of a year, the severity level for the whole year is the highest severity level of the infection in that year;

(ii) where, on the date of an application, R is not deceased and has not attained the age of their healthy life expectancy, the severity level of the infection for the period between the date of the application and the year in which R is expected to attain the age of their healthy life expectancy is be treated as the severity level on the date of the application, and such treatment is sufficient evidence to establish the level of the infection for the purposes of regulation 20(6)(b)(i);

(c) except in regulation 4 and Part 4, where R attains a specified age partway through a year, they are to be treated as if they had attained that age at the beginning of that year.

Meaning of “eligible infected person”

3

(1) For the purposes of these Regulations, a person is an eligible infected person where paragraph (1A), (2), (6), (7) or (8) applies to that person, whether or not that person is deceased.

(1A) This paragraph applies to a person who is, or immediately before they died was, an infected SSP recipient.

(2) Subject to paragraph (5), this paragraph applies to a person who—

(a) has received, in the course of NHS treatment or armed forces treatment overseas, infected blood treatment,

(b) was subsequently diagnosed with an infection specified in paragraph (3), and

(3) The infections are—

(a) HIV;

(b) Hepatitis C;

(i) the infection caused the person’s death within a period of 12 months beginning with the date that—

(aa) the infected blood treatment began, or

(bb) the person’s Hepatitis B infection reactivated, or

(ii) the infection did not cause the person’s death but continued for a period of at least six months beginning with the date that the infected blood treatment began.

(4) The times specified for the purposes of paragraph (2)(c) are—

(a) for a person diagnosed with HIV, any time before 1st November 1985;

(b) for a person diagnosed with Hepatitis C, any time during the period which begins with 1st January 1952 and ends with 1st September 1991;

(c) for a person diagnosed with Hepatitis B, any time during the period which begins with 1st January 1952 and ends with 1st December 1972.

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