I remember the day eight years ago, I was sitting next to Julie Morgan in this Chamber, and it was just after lunch time, and she said, 'There's a cross-party group I'm chairing, would you come and meet some of your constituents who are affected by this scandal?' And I went to meet with them—and I can see Kirk Ellis in the gallery today—and it had a huge impact on me and I wanted to join that campaign, so I'm proud to be vice-chair of the Senedd cross-party group on haemophilia and contaminated blood.

I just want to give some examples of those constituents I've met and have been in touch with since then. Janet Morgan and her daughter Felicity wrote to me to talk about their late husband and father who was a haemophiliac, who was infused with factor VIII and, as a result, was infected with hepatitis C. He received a number of clinical trial medications that made him very ill, and he and his family were robbed of a normal life. Felicity was only 12 years old when her father was informed that he had hepatitis C and three to five years to live. The loss of their husband and father in 2010 shook them and still deeply affects them as a family, as he was such a loving husband, father and grandfather, and their lives have never been the same.

I was contacted by Susan Hughes, whose brother Alan Jones was a haemophiliac who was infected with HIV and hepatitis C after receiving contaminated blood in the 1980s at the age of 15. He was told at the age of 17, without his parents being present, that he had contracted the viruses. Alan had learning difficulties after suffering a brain haemorrhage at the age of three, and he passed away in 1994 at the age of just 25 of a brain tumour caused by the AIDS virus. Alan and Susan's parents have now sadly passed away themselves, and they never saw justice.

I was contacted by Professor Nicholas Moran, whose late brothers, Peter and Tim, who were twins, were co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C by NHS contaminated blood products. They died at a young age due to HIV-related illnesses. Their mother's health suffered consequently, and her passing was a direct result of that. Professor Moran is a senior surgeon who's worked exclusively in the NHS for over four decades, but he has told me that he is so shaken by the outcome of this scandal that his confidence in the service has been shattered, particularly by the devastating revelations of Sir Brian Langstaff's report. As a result, he has decided to leave the NHS. He wants to see the recommendations from Sir Brian’s report implemented fully and without delay, and he’s concerned that although the UK Government has announced that interim payments will be made to infected persons, there has been no commitment to support affected relatives or previously unrecognised deaths.

I come to Kirk Ellis. Kirk gave me this tie, which is in the colours of the campaign, outside Wayne David’s office in Bedwas, I think it was three years ago now. We were still working on just basic compensation levels at that point. He regularly attends meetings of the cross-party group, and, as I’ve mentioned, he’s in the public gallery. I met him just after lunch today, and he said he’s got real concerns about the UK Government’s proposed compensation scheme. He could actually end up worse off in spite of the payments if he was to get the lump sum mentioned in the compensation scheme statement, as the support payments he receives would then stop. His lump sum would last him and his family for 20 years at most, and he points out that in Scotland the Scottish Government has guaranteed that ongoing current support payments are for life, as well as the lump sum compensation payments proposed by the UK Government in response to Sir Brian’s report. What he wants the Welsh Government to do—he recognises that this was a pre-devolution issue—is to make sure that that issue is resolved, that he isn’t reliant on just 20 years of funding as a result of the compensation, and that he isn’t caught in the trap of having that income that reduces, then, the disability benefits to which he was previously entitled.

And finally, I want to pay tribute to Wayne David, the now former MP for Caerphilly. Wayne worked very hard on this issue in the House of Commons, and presented a petition recently on the infected blood inquiry in the Chamber of the House of Commons. The petition called for immediate compensation to be given to those who had been affected by contaminated blood, and, jointly, our constituents Lee Stay and Kirk Ellis had added a number of local names to that petition. I think Wayne’s campaigning spirit on this will be missed from the House of Commons, but I think he’s worked hard too to make sure that we see the outcome that we’ve got today, albeit, I still think, as a staging post in the journey of providing full justice to the families and people affected by this scandal.