Fifty Fourth Meeting – 25 November 2011

  • The Minutes and Resolutions of the previous meeting were approved.
  • It was reported that there were 176 victims as at 25 November 2011, according to the figures on the National CJD Surveillance Unit website. However, Field Fisher Waterhouse was aware of 182 victims. By the end of this meeting, the Trustees had considered 177 of the claims submitted to date.  The Trustees had considered a total of 394 claims for £5,000 Psychiatric Injury, 209 claims for Particular Emotional Hardship and 44 claims for Particular Financial Hardship.
  • The meeting included consideration of two resubmitted claims for Psychiatric Injury, six for Particular Emotional Hardship, one claim for Particular Financial Hardship and a claim for carer’s loss of earnings.
  • £39.97m had been paid in compensation by the date of the meeting. £12.59m had been paid for costs, expenses and taxes, which included £5.31 million in relation to Charles Russell’s fees (inc VAT), £251,000 in relation to Field Fisher Waterhouse’s fees (inc VAT), £3.53 million in relation to Irwin Mitchell’s fees (inc VAT) and £251,000 in relation to other solicitors fees and expenses (inc VAT).
  • The Trustees were informed that John Melville Williams had died unexpectedly on 7 October 2011. They agreed that news of his death was desperately sad. His contribution to the Trust had been invaluable and that he would be greatly missed.  They resolved to appoint someone with a similar experience and to invite Richard Vallance, previously of Field Fisher Waterhouse, to replace him.
  • The Trustees were informed that the auditors had carried out their annual audit in October 2011.
  • Sir Robert Owen explained that he and representatives of FFW had met with the Trust’s new contact at the Department of Health. He felt it had been a very positive and constructive meeting.  He had outlined the Trustees’ plans to increase future payments of the Basic Sum and to invest a portion of the Trust’s money and had agreed to send formal proposals for the Secretary of State to approve.  He had explained that they planned to increase the Basic Sum by 2% annually and to commence those increases in March 2012 at an initial figure of £122,400.