Today we've submitted our Principles for Fair Compensation to Sir Robert Francis QC, Chair of the Infected Blood Compensation Framework Study.

We've worked with the infected blood community to co-produce the principles. We're calling on Sir Robert Francis QC to use them to guide the conclusions he reaches on his framework, which looks at options for compensation in relation to infected blood products.

The Principles for Fair Compensation include who should be eligible for compensation and outline a framework that gives those eligible the choice of how they are assessed and how payments are made. It also calls for an end to the discrimination that many from this community face in the financial services market and access to a 'gold standard' of free health and social care.

It's estimated that 1,243 people across the UK with haemophilia and bleeding disorders were infected with HIV because of contaminated blood products given to them by the NHS in the 1980s – fewer than 250 are still alive. For nearly 40 years, members of this community have fought for the truth to come out, for justice and for fair compensation.

Compensation has never been paid to those infected or affected by contaminated blood products.

Ian Green, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: 'There is no magic wand that can take away the pain endured by those who live with this trauma or those who died well before their time.

'Nothing will change the abuse inflicted by the state when it covered up, hid and misplaced documents to stop the truth coming out over decades. Most regrettably, we can never bring back the loved ones of the parents, siblings, wives, partners and children who are still grieving.

'At the very least, those impacted deserve fair compensation.'