FOI 0078 - Level 3 payments
Requested: 17 October 2025
Responded: 12 November 2025
Published: 17 February 2026
This is IBCA's response to Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
Thank you for your correspondence dated 17 October 2025 in which you questioned the response provided to your request for access to certain information which may be held by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority.
As you may be aware, the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held by a Public Authority (including the Infected Blood Compensation Authority) subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
Your initial request
On 11 November 2025, you asked four questions by four separate emails:
I would like to put in F.o.i on how many infected victims with severe fibrosis have received a level 3 compensation payment.
A f.o.i how many victims have received a level 3 payment who have severe fibrosis
Under a f.o.i how many victims currently infected are at review in their cases for compensation
A F.o.i How many infected victims have successfully won a review of their original compensation figure.
IBCA's response:
IBCA is unable to fulfil the entirety of your requests. The reasons for this are set out below.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 exempts IBCA from the duty to comply with a request for information if the estimated cost of complying would exceed the ‘appropriate limit’. The ‘appropriate limit’ is specified in The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, and for IBCA this is set at £450.This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 working hours in determining whether IBCA holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting it.
Regulation 4 (4) of the Fees Regulations 2004 sets out that costs incurred in determining whether the requested information is held, locating, retrieving and extracting information are to be estimated at a rate of £25 per staff member per hour, expected to be spent on those activities. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether IBCA holds the information and locating, retrieving and extracting it. Where the time for compliance with a request would exceed 18 hours, a request can be refused.
The cost of complying with your request exceeds the ‘appropriate limit’. While IBCA does hold the records that contain information relating to affected claimants who have severe fibrosis, however, the data is unstructured. A very conservative estimate is that it would take up a significant amount of staff time on average a minimum of 700 hours. This is in excess of the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450/18 hours of staff time. Therefore, IBCA is unable to provide you with the information you are seeking.
Under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act, IBCA has a duty to provide advice and assistance when refusing a request under section 12, to assist applicants in refining their request. IBCA may be able to comply with your request within the appropriate limit if you were to refine and limit the scope of your request to the number of overall level 3 payments, however, we cannot to distinguish between the different infection descriptions.
Your email of 12 November 2025 stated:
No they were made individually and not together so that will fall under guidence regulations, so stoptwisting it to suit you and answer the F.o.i's sent individually by law you have to answer so do not make me take legal action, answer all 5 of my F.o.i that i sent individually.
In response:
Whilst revisiting our original response to you, we have arrived at the same decision as previously outlined.
IBCA considered your four questions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and provided you with a response to two of those questions, with the other two questions still being considered and a response to those will be provided in due course.
IBCA aggregated your questions because they are the same or similar questions received on the same day. In doing so, IBCA reduced the costs involved in complying with requests in accordance with the Act. Therefore, both questions were responded to together in order to assist you.
It will take a minimum of 700 hours at a cost of £17,500 to comply with your request, so the section 12 exemption has been lawfully applied.
It is also noted that on 28 October 2025 you asked the following:
1) i need full imformation of numbers of victims affected that have severe fibrosis that have been
a) offered level 3 payments
b) have received a level 3 payment.
c) it has to be severe fibrosis as mine is stated
IBCA provided you with a response to this request on 6 November 2025.
In both of IBCA's responses dated 6 and 12 November 2025, IBCA has offered assistance to you by explaining you may refine your request, for example, to the number of overall level 3 payments. As part of this review, as of 2pm on 14 November 2025, we confirm that 525 payments were made where the infection severity level was marked as 3. Please note, this may include repeat payments made to a single person/claim.
In conclusion, the original response was and remains appropriate.