Transparency data

Open letter from the Chair of the Technical Expert Group (December 2025) (HTML)

Updated 1 December 2025

Rt Hon. Nick Thomas-Symonds MP 

Minister for the Cabinet Office 

Dear Minister, 

I am writing on behalf of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Technical Expert Group (TEG) to outline the Group’s proposed engagement plan with the infected blood community. Per the TEG’s terms of reference published in September, the group was invited to undertake targeted engagement with members of the Infected Blood Community as appropriate and proportionate to enable the Group to complete its work programme. Such activities will be facilitated by Cabinet Office officials, and will not replace the Government’s public consultation closing on 22 January 2026. 

The purpose of the TEG’s engagement is as follows:

A. To enable testing of emerging TEG thinking, ensuring that the TEG advice is informed by lived experience and wider professional views;

B. To increase transparency about the TEG work process to ensure that the rationale and thinking in relation to all recommendations are available for scrutiny.

Roundtable format

The TEG proposes to convene a series of virtual roundtables with the community to discuss aspects of the Infected Blood Inquiry Additional Report recommendations for the compensation scheme, to inform the group’s advice to government. At this stage I propose the roundtables will focus on the following areas: the Special Category Mechanism (SCM); the recognition of severe psychological harm; the recognition of treatment with interferon; and the affected supplementary route.The first of these roundtable discussions will take place during the consultation period and focus on SCM. All other roundtable discussions will be scheduled after the Government’s consultation closes, enabling the TEG to first consider, and incorporate the responses from the community on the TEG’s initial advice, and on the Government’s proposals. These will enable us to provide you with further advice without delaying the timetable that officials are working to in order to lay the fourth set of regulations for the scheme. 

The first two roundtables will be held in the week commencing 15 December 2025. These two roundtables will focus on developing specific eligibility criteria for the current government proposal for implementing a SCM Severe Health Condition award in the compensation scheme which could be administered within the confines of the tariff based scheme. This includes expanding the SCM award to people infected with Hepatitis B who are not currently eligible to join an Infected Blood Support Scheme. 

Transparency 

Each roundtable will be supported by a background paper on the specific recommendation to be discussed.  As a commitment to transparency, at least two weeks in advance of the meeting, the TEG will publish this paper on gov.uk. In addition to the roundtables, the TEG invites written responses from the community to the questions in the background paper, to consider in its advice to the Government. The background paper for the roundtables on SCM is therefore being published today alongside this letter. The TEG recognises that this issue affects a broad range of people across the community and with that in mind, invites responses from the community prior to the roundtable on the questions raised in the background paper to this email address: ibcs.teg@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

For the purpose of transparency, a list of participants and a record of the key points discussed will be published, but it will not attribute opinions to specific participants. We hope this will help facilitate trust between participants and promote open conversation on sensitive topics. The content, ideas, and key takeaways discussed during the roundtables can still be freely used and shared by participants. I will chair the roundtables but will be assisted by key TEG members, including consultant clinical psychologist Professor Deborah Christie, to ensure the roundtables take a trauma-informed approach to the sensitive topics being discussed. 

A record of the meeting will be taken by the Cabinet Office and circulated to all attendees for checking for accuracy. This will be made public alongside the advice from the TEG to the Government. Written responses to the TEG will also be summarised and published on Gov.uk. 

Yours sincerely, 

Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery FMedSci 

Chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Technical Expert Group