The Infected Blood Compensation Authority's community update of 7 May sets out a scheme that is still expanding in stages, but is now operating at material scale. As of 5 May 2026, 4,260 people had been asked to start a claim, 3,923 had begun the process, and 3,232 had been paid compensation worth just over £2.10 billion. IBCA also said it had received 18,530 registrations of intent to claim, while stressing that this count reflects registrations rather than unique individuals or unique claims. (gov.uk) That operational picture sits within a statutory framework that has been built in phases. IBCA says it will deliver the UK-wide compensation scheme, while the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 established the authority to pay compensation to victims of the infected blood scandal. Government scheme documents say the scheme was first established in regulations in August 2024 and then established in full on 31 March 2025, when eligibility widened to affected people and supplementary routes were added. (gov.uk)
IBCA's latest figures suggest the authority is still managing entry to the scheme by cohort rather than opening every route at the same pace. In the last fortnight alone, it says 246 further claims were brought in for people living with infection who had never previously been compensated, and it states that this group can be moved through more quickly because the cases are closer to those already processed for infected people linked to support schemes. (gov.uk) By contrast, IBCA says representatives of deceased infected people and affected applicants are still being brought in more cautiously while the claim service is adapted for those routes. That sequencing points to a familiar public-administration pattern: the authority is increasing throughput where evidence requirements and case handling are better understood, while keeping more complex claim types on a tighter intake until internal processes are settled. That is an inference from IBCA's own explanation of why different groups are moving at different speeds. (gov.uk)
The most substantive change in the 7 May update is that registration has now opened for claims on behalf of deceased affected people. IBCA says a person may now register an intent to claim if they have legal authority to act on behalf of a deceased affected person, or if they represent someone who does. In the update, IBCA defines an affected person for this route as someone who was the partner, parent, child, sibling or unpaid carer of an infected person. (gov.uk) The operational conditions are specific. For an estate to qualify, the deceased affected person must have died between 21 May 2024 and 31 March 2031. The claimant must be the executor or administrator of the estate, or be in the process of becoming one, which means having or being able to obtain a grant of probate or confirmation. IBCA says it can only start the claim where that grant exists or can be obtained, even though registration of intent is now open. (gov.uk)
That route represents a clear policy change from the government's original 21 May 2024 proposal. In that earlier proposal summary, the government said that where an affected person had died, it would not be possible for personal representatives of that estate to apply for compensation. After the Infected Blood Inquiry's Additional Report on Compensation, however, the government said in July 2025 that it accepted the recommendation to allow estates of affected people to inherit the claim, and later scheme guidance incorporated the 21 May 2024 to 31 March 2031 eligibility window. (gov.uk) The 7 May update matters because it converts that earlier policy and regulatory change into a live registration route. In practical terms, families who were previously outside the scheme can now enter the process, but the update makes clear that probate or confirmation remains the central gate before a claim can move into full handling. That is likely to make estate administration, not only eligibility, one of the main determinants of pace for this cohort. This is an inference drawn from IBCA's registration rules and the scheme guidance. (gov.uk)
IBCA also used the update to underline that governance is becoming more visible in public. Its second public board meeting took place on 6 May 2026, with board papers and agenda published separately and a video due to follow. According to the update, the main items were a progress report from chief executive David Foley, an update from Community Advisory Panel chair Tim Green, the authority's financial position, evidence requirements, identification requirements at claim start, and the business plan. (gov.uk) For claimants and representative groups, that agenda is revealing. It suggests the authority is still focused on front-end controls such as evidential sufficiency, claimant identification and service design, rather than only on raw volume. IBCA also apologised for sound problems during the first half of the meeting, a small point in itself, but one that shows the challenges of running a transparency model in real time while the service is still being built. The assessment about operational focus is an inference from the published agenda items. (gov.uk)
A second policy clarification in the update concerns cirrhosis and how it is treated in compensation assessments. IBCA says medical experts now recognise that cirrhosis can, in rare cases, improve or reverse, usually over many years and often after specific treatment, but the authority also says reversal cannot be confirmed on the basis of a single test result and is reviewed with expert clinical advisers using the full available evidence. (gov.uk) The key administrative point is that where medical records confirm that a person had, or probably had, cirrhosis caused by infection, compensation will not be reduced if liver health later improves. IBCA says those claimants would still be paid at infection severity level 3. For applicants with historic liver-disease evidence, that removes a significant area of uncertainty and indicates that later clinical improvement should not trigger a lower tariff where past cirrhosis has already been established. The final sentence is an inference from the guidance set out in the update. (gov.uk)
The registration system remains a central tool in how IBCA is organising future demand. The authority again urged anyone who may be eligible, or who intends to make an additional claim, to register their intent online. IBCA says that registration allows it to contact people once it is ready to begin the claim and helps it identify cases that may need to be prioritised under recommendations made by the Infected Blood Inquiry. (gov.uk) That makes the 18,530 figure important, but only if it is read correctly. IBCA states explicitly that registrations are counted as individual entries and not as unique people or unique claims, because some people may have registered more than once. For policymakers and campaign groups, the figure is therefore best understood as a demand signal and service-planning indicator rather than a clean measure of outstanding cases. That reading is an inference from IBCA's explanation of how the figure is compiled. (gov.uk)
The remainder of the update is more procedural, but still relevant to delivery quality. IBCA says it can provide the newsletter in large print, other languages and alternative formats, and it repeats its advice on fraud prevention, asking people to verify suspicious calls or messages through official contact channels. Those are routine controls, but they matter more as the scheme reaches a wider population that now includes estates and a broader affected cohort. (gov.uk) Taken together, the 7 May bulletin shows a compensation authority moving from early rollout into a more administratively mixed phase. High-volume processing for some infected cohorts is continuing, while the live opening of registration for deceased affected claims introduces a route that is likely to depend heavily on estate documentation and case-specific evidence. The immediate policy question is no longer whether that cohort is in scope; it is how quickly IBCA can turn formal eligibility into processed claims and payments without slowing the routes already under way. The final two sentences are analytical inferences based on the update and published scheme rules. (gov.uk)