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Guidance on assessing applications for the £20,000 payment from the Skipton Fund did not include first-hand evidence of the applicant in their definition of evidence, so this could not be used to support an application. There was no opportunity for an applicant who could be considered a natural clearer to explain why they considered that their Hepatitis C infection caused suffering beyond 6 months, and the Fund could not examine evidence on this point.

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The Fund worked with Professor Thomas to create a model of determining whether a person infected with Hepatitis C had reached stage 2 before dying, as their estate would be entitled to payments. This model estimated the likely speed of progression from infection to cirrhosis, differentiating those also coinfected with HIV.

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Dr Hewitt wrote to Nicholas Fish about Hepatitis C and intramuscular gamma-globulin and the fact that the transmission of the virus had not been documented with its use, despite more than half of preparations containing detectable HCV RNA. However, the intravenous intramuscular immunoglobulin had caused patients to develop non-A non-B Hepatitis, whereas the intramuscular immunoglobulin had not.

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Dr Hewitt wrote to Keith Foster stating that anti-D immunoglobulin produced in the UK had an "unparalleled safety record with regard to transmission of viruses", but there had been known cases of transmission episodes from anti-D produced outside of the UK including the Irish Transfusion board in the 1970s and early 1980s. These were a different method of manufacture and were intravenous preparations.

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Dr Mary Ramsay of the Health Protection Agency Centre for Infections was asked for advice by Nicholas Fish, acting as secretary to the appeals panel, on the extent to which science and statistics showed that injecting drug use for less than two years was likely to be a cause of an Hepatitis C infection, where the sufferer also had a history of blood transfusion and reported on in March 2007.

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The Skipton Appeals Panel would not hear from affected individuals personally.

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To qualify for Skipton Fund payments a person had to have been alive from 1 April 2016 and not be eligible for a Stage 2 payment. Scotland also provided for a Stage 2 payment of £50,000 to be made to a person coinfected with HIV if they had not already received a Stage 2 payment. England and Wales provided a bereavement payment of £10,000 if a contributory factor to the person's death was Hepatitis C (or HIV if coinfected).

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The definition of when a Stage 2 payment should be given was amended to include the infected person developing B-cell non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma where that had arisen after the person contracted Hepatitis C.

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The Scottish Haemophilia Forum argued in March 2005 that: "The Skipton Fund arose only as the result of the campaigning in Scotland by the Scottish Haemophilia Forum, the Motion supported by 80 MSPs from all parties, the unanimous support of the 1999-2003 Health Committee of the Scottish Parliament and the decision of the then Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm."

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Dr Reid was advised by the civil servant who had principal responsibility at the time for blood and blood policy, Richard Gutowski, that financial assistance for people infected with Hepatitis C through blood or blood products was not justified,

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Fibrosis is a state of scarring and scarring is not flexible. A cirrhosed liver is stiff, whereas a normal liver is pliable and soft. When fibroscans became available, which measured the degree of stiffness in a liver, they were therefore also useful diagnostically. A fibroscan produced a numerical value.

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A consequence of the court's ruling in "A and Others v National Blood Authority" was that the Scottish Executive began "considering constructively the implications" of it.

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The Scottish Executive instructed NHS Scotland to enter into discussions in Scotland with Scottish litigants who had been in the same position as those in England and Wales, with a view to settling their actions under the Consumer Protection Act.

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Susan Deacon was informed that the BBC were planning to run a story on claims for compensation from haemophiliacs who had contracted Hepatitis C as a result of receiving infected blood clotting agents from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service in the late 1980s / early 1990s.

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Nicholas Fish began working for the Skipton Fund in November 2004 as a temp. He was the assistant to the then administrator, helping to write letters, gather evidence, answer emails and carry out general administrative duties.

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When the first administrator at Skipton was found to be defrauding the fund in 2006, the need for some continuity meant that Nicholas Fish succeeded to the job. The systems he operated were those he inherited, and had experience of applying.

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Nicholas Fish at the Skipton Fund sought advice from Elizabeth Boyd and her contacts at the Royal Free Hospital as to medical issues including whether cirrhosis was present.

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With regard to payments by the Skipton Fund, no distinction was made, save as between Stage 1 and Stage 2, between those more seriously affected physiologically, nor any account taken in the scheme itself as to the presence or degree of psychological distress, social or financial disadvantage that resulted.

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In his written evidence, Lord Hunt described his meetings with the Haemophilia Society, other groups, patients and their families as "troubling and vividly brought home to me their suffering and the need to help them as much as possible. I looked for ways to do that, but it is a matter of great regret that it took so long for successive Governments to achieve this."

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In his written evidence, Mark Mildred (chair of the Skipton Fund Appeals Panel) noted in relation to intravenous drug use: "More extensive disclosure and oral evidence tested by cross-examination might have given a more detailed picture and a better informed basis for the assessment of credibility but these were not open to us."

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