PA
Labour has been forced to put aside £13 billion to compensate the victims of two major public scandals after the previous administration failed to budget for it.
Public inquiries into both scandals have recommended swift and generous compensation packages for those who have suffered injustices, but Rachel Reeves claimed the Tories left no money to cover the costs for this.
As a result, the chancellor has made available £11.8 billion to compensate those impacted by the infected blood scandal and £1.8 billion to compensate the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
In her Budget speech, she told MPs: “The previous government also failed to budget for costs which they knew would materialise.
“That includes funding for vital compensation schemes for victims of two terrible injustices: the infected blood scandal and the Post Office Horizon scandal.
“The Leader of the Opposition (Rishi Sunak) rightly made an unequivocal apology for the injustice of the infected blood scandal on behalf of the British state, but he did not budget for the costs of compensation.
“Today, for the very first time, we will provide specific funding to compensate those infected and those affected, in full, with £11.8 billion in this Budget.
“I am also today setting aside £1.8 billion to compensate victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal, redress that is long overdue for the pain and injustice that they have suffered.”
Some 30,000 NHS patients were given blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C between the 1970s and the early 1990s.
The scandal has not only led to thousands of deaths, but long-term impacts on the lives of those affected and their families.
In the Post Office-Horizon scandal, thousands of subpostmasters were accused of fraud due to faulty accounting software.
Some were jailed or forced to pay back thousands of pounds while others were ostracised by their communities for crimes they did not commit.
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