Fifty First Meeting – 5 November 2010

  • The Minutes and Resolutions of the previous meeting were approved.
  • It was reported that there were 174 victims as at 1 November 2010, according to the figures on the National CJD Surveillance Unit website. However, Field Fisher Waterhouse was aware of 179 victims. Main Applications had been received in relation to 177 claims.  By the end of this meeting, the Trustees had considered 173 of the claims submitted to date.  The Trustees had considered a total of 388 claims for £5,000 Psychiatric Injury, 205 claims for Particular Emotional Hardship and 40 claims for Particular Financial Hardship.
  • The meeting included consideration of three claims for Psychiatric Injury and five claims for Particular Emotional Hardship, of which two were resubmitted claims.
  • £38.98m had been paid in compensation by the date of the meeting. £12.45m had been paid for costs, expenses and taxes, which included £5.25 million in relation to Charles Russell’s fees (inc VAT), £38,000 in relation to Field Fisher Waterhouse’s fees (inc VAT), £3.45 million in relation to Irwin Mitchell’s fees (inc VAT) and £242,000 in relation to other solicitors fees and expenses (inc VAT).
  • The Trustees considered and approved, subject to some minor amendments, the new website that had been created to take into account the amendment to the Scheme for victims diagnosed after 31 March 2010.
  • The Trustees considered the information provided by Cazenove, an independent Capital Management Company, and agreed that they would invite representatives to make a presentation at the next Trustees’ meeting to consider whether it was appropriate to invest a portion of the Trust Funds in light of the current high rate of inflation and low rate of interest offered by the banks.
  • Following the discussion at the previous meeting and having considered the submissions made by the interested parties to the Judicial Review Proceedings in relation to the adequacy of the Scheme for living victims, the Trustees resolved that they did not wish to submit proposals to the Secretary of State for amendment to the Trust Deed to provide additional compensation. However, they resolved that the situation should be kept under review and revisited if appropriate.
  • The Trustees were informed that the annual accounts had been approved by the auditors for the year ending April 2010.