Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, intervenes on the Chair of the Treasury Committee’s speech in the Budget Debate to welcome the Budget announcement of funding for the compensation schemes for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals and calls on the Government to ensure that these payments are made quickly.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (North Cotswolds) (Con)
I thank the Chair of the Treasury Committee and congratulate her on her new role. There was one very welcome bit of the Budget today, and that was the funding for the infected blood scheme and the Post Office Horizon scheme, but will she join me in urging the Chancellor to ensure that those amounts are quickly paid out, so that those victims, whom we hear about almost every day in the media, are rapidly compensated and can get their lives back to normal?
Dame Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op)
It seems that the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee—this is something the hon. Gentleman and I have in common—hears promises made by Governments of different colours who do not always deliver as they should. He is absolutely right. In fact, the National Audit Office, at my request, pulled together a document looking at compensation schemes. They are often put together differently—although these particular schemes have now been set—and some do not deliver as well as others. Windrush is also in that mix. This is important, and perhaps the hon. Gentleman is offering his services to the Chancellor to ensure that that money gets out of the door. Of course, his Committee will be examining these programmes as time goes on.