Memorial service to remember Infected Blood victims

• A service of recognition, remembrance and reflection for the infected blood community will take place at St Paul’s today, on the eve of the second anniversary of the Infected Blood Inquiry reporting. 

• The service has been designed by the Infected Blood Memorial Committee in consultation with the wider community.

• The service will provide an opportunity to remember the harms, losses, and trauma faced by the community and the loved ones who have been lost.

The thousands of individuals and families impacted by the Infected Blood scandal will be honoured today (Tuesday, 19 May 2026) at a national service of recognition, remembrance and reflection in St Paul’s Cathedral.

The service has been planned by the Infected Blood Memorial Committee, which is made up of members of the infected blood community, and will be attended by state representatives and community supporters. 

The Memorial Committee has invited those it wishes to witness the impact of the scandal so that it may never be repeated.

The Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer, said:

We stand with the infected blood community to bear witness to the lives lost and those changed forever. As a nation, we must ensure the lessons of this scandal are never forgotten.

I pay tribute to their extraordinary courage and dignity in their long fight for truth and justice, and extend my sincere thanks to the Infected Blood Memorial Committee for the care, compassion and dedication behind this service.

Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, The Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds, said: 

For decades, the infected blood community fought with extraordinary courage to uncover the truth and this service is about recognising the loss, trauma and harm faced by the community.

I would like to thank the Infected Blood Memorial Committee for the time and dedication that has gone into organising the service. Their work on memorialisation, following the recommendations made by Sir Brian Langstaff, is vital to ensuring that this scandal is always remembered and its lessons never forgotten.

The Chair of the Infected Blood Memorial Committee, Clive Smith, said: 

Today’s service at St Paul’s is a long-overdue day for the contaminated blood community.  

For the first time, representatives of the state will stand together with the community in a moment of national recognition, remembrance and reflection. Today, we remember and bear witness to the thousands impacted by this scandal.  

We honour those who are no longer with us, those who cannot be with us, and those who continue to ensure the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS is never repeated.

The service will be livestreamed for members of the community who are unable to attend in person. The service has been designed to be inclusive and interactive for the community. 

The service will include:  

• Symbolic empty chairs interspersed amongst the congregation to represent those no longer with us and those who are unable to be in attendance. 

• A reading of names, where the entire congregation will be asked to read out the first name of a person put forward to be remembered and honoured together. 

• A moment of silence as thousands of white, red and yellow petals fall from the Whispering Gallery.

• A short address from Sir Brian Langstaff, Chair of the Inquiry. 

• Hymns chosen by the community, and over 50 volunteers will light candles in remembrance.

In addition to the St Paul’s Cathedral Consort (choir), Michael Ball is expected to perform Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, and the London Contemporary Voices Choir, who sang at the close of the Inquiry, will sing Emeli Sandé’s Read All About It.

The service is about remembering the harms, losses, and trauma faced by the community, and making time for the community to come together to remember the loved ones who have been lost. 

As well as delivering the commemorative events recommended by the Inquiry, the Infected Blood Memorial Committee continues to work to establish a national memorial. The Committee is also committed to supporting Infected Blood Memorials being built at Treloars School and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

The Committee expects to publish their first report in early 2027. This will set out the Committee’s recommendations to the Minister for the Cabinet Office on the location and principles behind the national memorial. These recommendations will be informed by their engagement with the community. 

Tuesday, 19 May, marks the eve of the second anniversary of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s full report. The Inquiry examined how men, women and children treated by the National Health Service across the UK were given infected blood and blood products from the 1970s onwards.

ENDS

Notes:

• The Infected Blood Inquiry, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff, was set up in 2017 to examine the circumstances where men, women and children treated by the national health services in the UK were given infected blood and blood products, in particular since the 1970s. This has become known as the infected blood, or contaminated blood, scandal. This inquiry closed on 31st March 2026. 

• The Infected Blood Memorial Committee has been established following the recommendations of Sir Brian Langstaff in the Infected Blood Inquiry Report in May 2024.

• Recommendation 2 is “Recognising and remembering what happened to people”. Recommendation 2 reads:

• 2a.  A permanent memorial be established in the UK and consideration be given to memorials in each of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The nature of the memorial(s), their design and location should be determined by a memorial committee consisting of people infected and affected and representatives of the governments. It should be funded by the UK government.

• 2b.  A memorial be established at public expense, dedicated specifically to the children infected at Treloar’s School. The memorial should be such as is agreed with those who were pupils at Treloar’s.

• 2c.  There should be at least three events, approximately six months apart, drawing together those infected and affected, the nature and timing of which should be determined by a working party as described above, facilitated by some central funding.

• This recommendation has been accepted in full by the UK Government, the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. This recommendation is being taken forward on a UK-wide basis.

• The funding for this is separate from the money allocated to pay compensation.