Campaign & Accountability

The Evidence That Was Never Recorded: Are Infected Blood Victims Being Penalised for Missing NHS Records?

The Infected Blood Inquiry exposed serious historical failures in recording and tracing contaminated blood and blood products. Now, previously unregistered living victims and bereaved families face difficult questions about missing batch numbers, destroyed medical records and the evidence needed for compensation. The Unheard Voice investigates whether these gaps could lead to unfair Hepatitis C severity classifications, potentially reducing compensation and leaving affected relatives ineligible. Working with Infected Blood One Voice, Kevin Roberts is calling for people affected by these issues to come forward and share their experiences.

By Anonymous · Oct 17, 2026

A dark midnight-blue investigative graphic showing a blood bag labelled with a batch number, old medical files stamped “not recorded,” a hospital corridor with a lone figure, and grieving family silhouettes. The headline reads: “The Evidence That Was Never Recorded,” with the subtitle: “Batch numbers, missing records and unregistered claims.” — “Victims and bereaved families should not be penalised for records the system failed to keep.”

“The Government cannot recreate every medical record that was never written. But it can ensure that victims are not unfairly disadvantaged by their absence.”

For decades, victims of the infected blood scandal have been forced to fight for answers about infections acquired through NHS blood and blood products.

Some were never told they had been exposed. Others discovered their infections many years later. Many died before the truth emerged.

Now another question demands scrutiny.

**Are previously unregistered infected people and deceased estates being disadvantaged by medical evidence that was never recorded, has been lost or has since been destroyed?**

And could decisions about the severity of Hepatitis C infections have consequences not only for infected victims, but also for their partners, children and other affected relatives?

The Unheard Voice, working alongside Infected Blood One Voice, is investigating these concerns.

The missing batch numbers: what the Inquiry found

The Infected Blood Inquiry documented serious historical failures in recording and tracing blood and blood products.

Its final report described circumstances in which medical records did not adequately document transfusions or the identifying numbers of blood products administered to patients.

These were failures within the healthcare system, not the responsibility of the patients receiving treatment.

Yet decades later, infected people and bereaved families may find themselves trying to reconstruct treatment histories from records that no longer exist.

Some have incomplete hospital files. Others have discovered that records were destroyed or were never properly completed.

Batch numbers can be valuable evidence of historical treatment. However, the published compensation framework does not establish a universal requirement for every claimant to produce a batch number.

The concern is whether claimants are being asked to