Infected blood report’s key findings at a glance

Patients should have been informed about the risks of their treatment, the report finds.

The lack of information meant that people were not aware of how likely they were to be exposed to infections.

The report says the dangers linked to how blood and blood products could cause infections were known as long ago as the end of World War Two.

Successive governments in power since people were infected with contaminated blood have often said that patients received the best medical treatment available at the time, and that blood screening was introduced at the earliest opportunity. The report concludes that neither of these claims are true.

A wrong decision was made in July 1983, when the government chose not to suspend the importation of commercial blood products, despite it being apparent from mid-1982 that Aids could be transmitted by blood.

In addition, UK blood services are accused of not being rigorous in their screening of blood donors. Up until 1984, prisoners were being paid to donate blood.