Open letter from the Minister for the Cabinet Office to the Chair of the Technical Expert Group (December 2025) (HTML)
Updated 15 December 2025
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Dear Professor Sir Jonathan Montgomery,
Thank you for your letter of 1 December setting out the Technical Expert Group’s approach for targeted engagement with the infected blood community. I endorse the series of virtual roundtables as a general approach to targeted engagement with the community, in order to inform the Group’s advice to government.
The Technical Expert Group will advise on technical, legal and clinical matters; it will not make decisions on policy. The Government will continue to be accountable for the development of policy, and the Government is currently consulting the infected blood community on the issues on which the Technical Expert Group provides advice. The roundtables will not replace the important consultation process.
I look forward to confirmation of future roundtables that the Technical Expert Group plans to hold, following the closure of the consultation on 22 January 2026, on the Inquiry recommendations that are within the Group’s work programme. This includes: the recognition of severe psychological harm; the recognition of interferon treatment; and the supplementary route for affected persons.
In keeping with the commitment to transparency of the Technical Expert Group, outlined in my letter to you of 15 September 2025, I welcome the planned publication of materials from the roundtables, such as background papers and the record of the meeting. I understand the first roundtables are being held this week on the Special Category Mechanism, and that the list of attendees has been published today to further make transparent the workings of the Group.
Yours sincerely,
RT HON NICK THOMAS-SYMONDS
MINISTER FOR THE CABINET OFFICE
HM PAYMASTER GENERAL