Archer Inquiry

FIRST BROADCAST: Monday, 23 February, 2009. BBC Newsnight
Do Britain's health ministers bear any responsibility for the deaths of nearly 1,800 haemophiliacs?
Today was a day many of Britain's haemophiliacs thought they might not live to see. The publication of Lord Archer of Sandwell's report into how thousands of haemophiliacs became infected with viruses including Hepatitis C and HIV from contaminated blood products used to treat them. Close to 1,800 have already died. Lord Archer's inquiry began almost two years ago to the day.
Some 20,000 documents and 300 witness statements later, and he says he has now set out what went wrong. He concludes that delays in replacing high risk blood products from overseas had disastrous consequences, yet there's no mention in his report of who's to blame. So was it all an accident? We'll be looking at the evidence and asking if Lord Archer should have gone further (2009).