25 July 2033: Quin - A

Jeremy Quin must be the nicest guy in politics … if you believe all the times people use such faint praise as part of the excuse for his obfuscation over contaminated blood compensation (or “nompensation”). Appearance-wise, there is something of the James Roberson Justice about the man. That’s not a criticism, but simply a response to his frequent whole face smile, which in its own way has irked some campaigners. He took the religious version of the oath; so, a Godfearing man.

It was noted that Dame Diana Johnson was in attendance today.

Counsel did the usual brief review of the witnesses’ track record in Government. There was also a very brief review of those who most recently filled his role as Paymaster General (PG) and Minister for the Cabinet Office. He had received a briefing on the Infected Blood Inquiry and the issues surrounding it when he came to post, but was aware of some of the issues through his role as a constituency MP.

Right away there was reference to the statement of Michael Ellis to publish the Francis report on the Compensation Framework Study (the Study) as well as the Government response. The intention was to publish the report and response prior to Sir Robert Francis KC giving evidence to the Inquiry. He felt it would have been seen as helpful at the time to the Inquiry and core participants to have that documentary access. He was asked about the missed opportunity for the Inquiry to see the Government’s thinking so it could investigate, question, and discuss the response, given that the Inquiry has deep and fulsome knowledge of the issues. The witness struggled to put himself in the minds of those in post at the time so could only waffle about possible justifications. When pressed on the appearance of this to the infected and affected community, he had to step back to generalised “we feel your pain” rhetorical phraseology. The justification for later delaying making available the Study report and simply not publishing the Government response was highlighted by Counsel. The “complexity” excuse was questioned since it should not have been a surprise to Government. The Chair stepped in to compound the obvious discomfort and out-of-his-depthness being increasingly noted as coming from the witness. His attempt to talk in very long sentences while trying not to answer just did not work (… oh, the transparency of tautology).

The questioning progressed to the period when Mr Quin was in post as PG. His witness statement was scrutinised as it referred to the current activity hiatus period of considering the Study and subsequently the Second Interim Report. Apparently, officials have been working hard in the background, such as was the case when the first round of interim compensation payments was being delivered, he sought to assert. Counsel tried to drill down on the nature of all the work that is allegedly going on. The position is that the Government cannot commit to anything until the work of officials is concluded. He was challenged on the matter of which “Department” is doing work, or why there is a need for the Government to do its own options appraisal on compensation scheme models in the face of having already initiated the Inquiry and the Study. The witness mentioned that the internal options appraisals work on other models of a scheme had been seen by him. (This writer foresees a Freedom of Information request being made to gain access to that material.)

The witness was asked about the anomaly of what had (not) been happening compared to the statements of people working “at pace”. This question produced an audible titter from the audience there present. It appears that the senior meetings to work towards a response only really started when he took up the PG role. The witness assiduously avoided dropping any predecessor into some prospective organic fertiliser, but made it clear that he had felt it was important to action the progress of the considerations.

“The Government absolutely does get it,” he said when challenged on the need to act swiftly since those infected and affected do not have time on their side. It produced multiple head shaking motions in the room. The issue of time being of the essence was reconfirmed as requiring the Government to respond as soon as possible. It was conceded that the Government did expect compensation to be a key part of the recommendations of the Inquiry in its Final Report. Counsel then springboarded to the call for interim compensation payments to the estates of those where it would go affected people such as parents and children. The anticipated timelines which were previously communicated would have meant that the Government might well have received the Inquiry Final Report by now and would be expected to be in a position to respond to the full set of Recommendations … by now.

The Chancellor is the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee which is a sub-committee of the Cabinet and that was given as the reason why the witness had written to him. It was not just the witnesses’ own decision on how to respond to the Study and the Interim Reports, rather it was a Cabinet decision. Reference was made to Penny Mordaunt describing the “write around” process. Counsel pursued clarity on the nature and timescales of Cabinet information flow and decision-making mechanisms. In answering, mention was made of there being the possibility of disagreement by a colleague, which would require more work and negotiation. (This writer has been part of conversations which have speculated about who might be the stumbling block to the witness being able to say more than platitudes and stonewalling doubletalk.)

Sir Robert had previously been mentioned as being brought back in to advise the Government in taking forward the compensation aspects of Inquiry recommendations, but this has not yet happened. There were various references to statements made by the witness to Parliament about keeping people updated, including his intention to give statements on specific matters even if the whole response was not complete. This had been his desire, “but it wasn’t a commitment to do so”, he added; as if that got him and the Cabinet off the hook. (It appears that this nice guy’s reputation is being tarnished by someone who is not letting him be the bearer of good news that he so surely wants to be seen as.) It was noted how Mr Quin had demanded more frequent updates to him on progress. Counsel highlighted the inconsistency of this all with the idea of “working at pace”, which produced a shrug of the shoulders from the witness and a shifting in their chairs of the audience.

The Permanent Secretaries group does not involve the witness and he does not know if he is a recipient of the minutes of those meetings. There have been meetings with the devolved health ministers, but again Mr Quin is not involved. (This does beg the question, “What are the Health Ministers taking about in these meetings when it comes to infected blood and compensation?” Certainly, on the matter of compensation, that will be under the remit of the Treasury.)

Asked for his understanding of what the acceptance of the “moral case” for compensation meant, the witness attempted to sound generous while still being non-committal.

The Second Interim Report was the next staging post for questions. Given all the acknowledged need for swiftness for those infected and affected as spouted by Government and others, but with so little appearing to be happening, “Is that good enough?” asked Counsel. The witness tried to babble on about how important the Government saw things (… and/etc>), but was again pressed for an answer of whether or not it is good enough. However, he could only resort to saying what the Government intended to do. (This writer must conclude that it is simply not possible to squeeze an admission of inadequacy from a Government Minister for anything, whatever verbal thumbscrews might be applied. Is it inappropriate to reflect on the assumed Christian morality of honesty and regard for the needy as being potentially compromised due to a split loyalty towards the Unholy Church of the Whitehall Establishment?)