It was one of the worst medical disasters in the history of the NHS leaving patients, whose treatment infected them with Hepatitis C or HIV, facing lifelong consequences.

So the latest apologies, from the UK Government over the contaminated blood scandal are welcome. But it is the announcement of financial support which those affected are waiting for - and the have been waiting for many years now. Some have lost their lives while waiting for answers and compensation.

The UK Government has now announced a consultation on its plans to spend £100m on top of £25m already pledged, but insists this is financial support for those affected, not compensation.

The delay involved in reaching even this point was such that the Scottish Government held and published its own review, and health minister Shona Robison has pledged is to announce a new and improved system for financial support from those affected in April.

As a result, the picture regarding reparation is now a horrible muddle, with the Scottish Government working to implement the apparently more generous findings of its own review, while the UK Government consults its own proposals.

These fall short of what was proposed by the Scottish Government's Financial Review Group in several areas. For example Haemophilia Scotland, says the increase in the amount on offer to those whose health has been damaged would be just £251 under the Department of Health proposals, whereas the figure would be £12,000 in Scotland.

There is a clear moral obligation to help those affected and there is surely no way that the Scottish Government can now back away from the findings of its own inquiry.

Yet it is far from clear what the implications would be of a more generous system of support being set up in Scotland and it will do little to defuse the sense of injustice felt by people affected by contaminated blood products south of the border.