Thousands of patients were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.
The UK was struggling to get enough Factor VIII – a clotting agent made from pooled human blood plasma used as treatment – and imported supplies from the US, who would pay people to give blood.
The contaminated blood scandal has been labelled the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS.
“The infected blood tragedy should never have happened,” a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told The Independent.