Duty of Care
It is hard, in all truth, to contemplate circumstances more egregious, more calculated to appall.
Hundreds, thousands of people came forward for blood transfusion or haemophilia treatment. They thought the system was helping them. They thought it would make their lives better.
Hundreds, thousands ended up infected with Hepatitis C and HIV.
Collectively, we owe them a duty of care. It is entirely right, therefore, to apply close scrutiny to the plans to investigate this tragedy.
Two developments today. Firstly, we have had conducted by the Labour peer Lord Archer of Sandwell.
He notes it was "difficult to imagine" a worse disaster for the NHS. He condemns the system which permitted the importation of contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s without sufficient monitoring.
Secondly, we have heard concerns voiced in Scotland that the . Perhaps inevitably, the talk in advance is of "whitewash".
Inquiry limits
I heard Nicola Sturgeon on GMS this morning on this topic - and found her to be frank about the limits of the inquiry while attempting to offer reassurance, in my view with some success.
The inquiry in Scotland will be statutory, announced by the Scottish Government. It will be headed by Lord Penrose.
The concerns are two fold. Will the inquiry be able to get at all the facts? Will the inquiry be able to compel all relevant witnesses to attend?
On the second point, the answer, bluntly, is no. t least in as much as one envisages that there will be key witnesses in Whitehall.
Lord Archer notes the UK Government declined to offer public evidence to his inquiry - while co-operating to the extent of providing data and details.
He lacked the power of compulsion because his inquiry was non-statutory. Not, in short, set up by government.
The Penrose inquiry in Scotland has governmental backing - but it will similarly be unable to compel witnesses beyond Scottish shores. That is a plain fact of law.
Specific problem
However, it is believed within the Scottish Government that this may not present an insuperable problem.
There has been talk this morning that a specific problem arises in that the events in question took place before devolution in 1999.
However, that may not be as big a difficulty as some envisage. Even before the advent of a Scottish Parliament, health services were administratively devolved to Scotland.
There was a Scottish ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and Health Department with Scottish Ministers. Papers and documents from the SHHD fall within the remit of the present Scottish Government.
There could still be an issue, however. Day-to-day charge of the blood transfusion service lay in Scotland. But Whitehall had responsibility for the regulation and licensing of blood products.
Ms Sturgeon is adamant she has assurances of co-operation from the Department of Health in London.
It will be up to Lord Penrose to activate those assurances - or voice complaints if he faces frustration.
All power to him.
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