The Scottish Infected Blood Forum and Haemophilia Scotland have issued the following statement in advance of their meetings with the former Bishop of Liverpool, The Right Reverend James Jones (12th Sept), and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Haemophilia and Contaminated blood (13th Sept):
“In our united view, the UK Public Inquiry should be a statutory Inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act. It should be conducted by a Panel rather than a Chair and they should be appointed as soon as possible with appropriate input from affected people. The wrong Chair and Panel is worse than no Chair and Panel. There must be Scottish Core Participants and Scottish legal representation.
“We want people to make their own decision about whether or not to attend the meeting with the Bishop. The Scottish charities are attending because we want to take opportunities to engage and put forward the Scottish perspective. Therefore, we are not boycotting the meeting or planning to walk out of it. We take the Bishop at his word and believe him when he says that he is making a genuine attempt to help.
“The Scottish Infected Blood Forum and Haemophilia Scotland are both currently working with Thompsons Solicitors.
“We continue to call for the Department of Health to step aside in favour of another Department taking the lead establishing a UK Inquiry.”
